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LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  CRUZ 


SANTA     CRUZ 


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Gift  ot 


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Mr. Henry  J.McFarland 


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SANTA     CRUZ 


HISTORY 


OF   THE 


UNITED    STATES, 


FROM   THE 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CONTINENT. 


GEOKGE  BANCROFT. 


VOL.  VII. 


FIFTH     EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,     BROWN    AND     COMPANY 
1861. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

GEOKGE  BANCKOFT, 

tn  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


THE 


AMERICAN  REVOLUTION 


BY 


GEOKGE  BANCKOFT. 


VOL.  I. 


FIFTH     EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,     BROWN    AND     COMPANY, 
1861, 


M.nterea  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

GEOKGE  BANCEOFT, 

to  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


Y.7 


PREFACE. 

• 

i 

THE  period  of  the  American  Revolution  of  which  a  por- 
tion is  here  treated,  divides  itself  into  two  epochs;  the 
first  extending  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  the 
second,  to  the  acknowledgment  of  that  Independence 
by  Great  Britain.  In  preparing  the  volume,  there  has 
been  no  parsimony  of  labor ;  but  marginal  references  to 
the  documents  out  of  which  it  has  mainly  been  con- 
structed are  omitted.  This  is  done  not  from  an  un- 
willingness to  subject  every  statement  of  fact,  even  in 
its  minutest  details,  to  the  severest  scrutiny ;  but  from 
the  variety  and  multitude  of  the  papers  which  have 
been  used,  and  which  could  not  be  intelligibly  cited, 
without  burdening  the  pages  with  a  disproportionate 
commentary. 

From  the  very  voluminous  manuscripts  which  I  have 
brought  together,  I  hope  at  some  not  very  distant  day 
to  cull  out  for  publication  such  letters  as  may  at  once 
confirm  my  narrative  and  possess  an  intrinsic  and  general 

VOL.    VII.  1* 


6  PREFACE. 

interest  by  illustrating  the  character  and  sentiments  of 
the  people  during  the  ten  or  twelve  years  preceding  the 
Fourth  of  July,  1776. 

At  the  close  of  the  sixth  volume  of  this  work,  some 
imperfect  acknowledgment  was  made  to  those  from 
whom  I  have  received  most  essential  service  while 
making  my  collection  of  materials.  I  shall  hereafter 
have  occasion  to  recur  to  that  subject;  at  this  time  I 
desire  to  express  my  sense  of  the  friendly  regard  of. 
many  persons  in  various  parts  of  our  country,  who  have 
sent  me  unpublished  Documents,  or  historical  pamphlets 
and  monographs,  such  as  the  liberal  and  inquisitive  are 
constantly  producing.  Whatever  can  be  obtained  in 
the  ordinary  way  through  the  booksellers,  I  have  no 
need  to  solicit ;  but  I  am  and  shall  ever  be  grateful  to 
any  person  who  will  forward  to  me  at  New  York  any 
materials  which  cannot  be  obtained  except  through  pri- 
vate courtesy. 

• 

NEW  YORK,  March  31,  1858. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

AMERICA,   BRITAIN,    AND   FEANCE,    IN  MAT,    1774.      May,  1774. 

The  hour  of  the  American  Revolution,  21 — Its  necessity,  21 — Freedom 
founded  on  a  universal  principle,  22 — Most  cherished  in  America,  22 — Britain 
should  have  offered  independence,  23 — Infatuation  of  the  king  and  parlia- 
ment, 24 — France,  25 — Increase  of  monarchical  power,  25 — The  people  of 
France,  25 — Its  unity,  26 — Decay  of  the  French  nobility,  26 — They  escape 
military  service  and  taxation,  26 — The  king  master  of  the  treasury,  27 — Of 
the  army,  28 — Of  the  church,  28 — The  magistrates,  28 — Municipal  charters, 
29 — Scepticism  in  France,  29 — Degradation  of  the  monarchy,  30 — Rising 
importance  of  the  people,  31 — The  dauphin,  31 — Marie  Antoinette,  31 — Ac- 
cession of  Louis  XVI.,  32 — Voltaire's  hopes,  32 — Beaumarchais,  32 — Charles 
III.  of  Spain,  33 — The  mourners  for  Louis  XV.,  33 — Jealousy  between  Britain 
and  France,  34 — Port  act  received  in  Boston,  34 — Meeting  of  nine  commit- 
tees, 35 — The  tea  not  to  be  paid  for,  36 — Circular  to  the  colonies,  36 — Boston 
town  meeting,  37 — Gage  arrives,  37 — His  character,  38 — Firmness  of  New- 
buryport  and  Salem,  38 — Of  Boston,  39. 

CHAPTEK  II. 

NEW   YOBK   PROPOSES   A   GENEBAL   OONGEESS.      May,  1774. 

New  York  Sons  of  Liberty  propose  a  general  congress,  40 — Formation 
of  a  conservative  party,  41 — Effect  of  the  port  act  on  the  people,  42 — Con- 
necticut, 42 — Providence,  42 — New  York  committee  of  fifty-one,  42 — The 
king  approves  two  acts  against  Massachusetts,  43 — Philadelphia,  43 — Dick- 
inson moderates  public  feeling,  44 — His  measures,  45 — Second  thought  of 
New  York,  46— Zeal  of  Connecticut,  46— Hutchinson's  addressers,  46— They 
are  condemned,  47 — Samuel  Adams  suppresses  murmurs,  47 — Massachusetts 
legislature  organized,  47 — Patience  of  Boston,  48. 


3  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE  HI. 

VOICES  FBOM  THE  SOUTH.    May,  1774,  continued. 

Baltimore,  49 — Its  conduct  a  model,  50 — New  Hampshire,  50 — New  Jer- 
sey, 50 — South  Carolina,  60 — Its  sympathy  for  Boston,  51— Virginia,  52 — 
Its  burgesses  appoint  a  fast,  53 — House  dissolved,  54 — Meeting  of  its  mem- 
bers, 54 — Convention  called,  54 — North  Carolina,  55 — Union  of  the  coun- 
try, 55. 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

MASSACHUSETTS   APPOINTS   THE   TIME  AND   PLACE   FOB  A   GfiNEEAL   OONGBE88. 

June,  1774. 

Blockade  of  Boston,  56 — Effects  elsewhere,  57 — The  king  makes  a  list 
of  mandamus  councillors,  58 — The  governor  of  Massachusetts  may  order 
troops  to  fire  on  the  people,  58 — Contrast  between  the  king  and  Samuel 
Adams,  59 — The  new  league  and  covenant,  60 — Non-intercourse  with 
Britain,  60 — The  legislature  at  Salem,  61 — The  council  affronts  the  gover- 
nor, 61 — Proceedings  of  the  house,  62 — Arrival  of  more  troops  at  Boston. 
62 — Firmness  of  the  people,  63 — The  Massachusetts  legislature  appoints  the 
time  and  place  for  the  National  congress,  63 — Gage  dissolves  the  assembly, 
64 — Boston  town  meeting,  64 — John  Adams  enters  public  life,  65 — Prompt- 
ness of  Rhode  Island,  65— And  of  Maryland,  66. 

CHAPTEE  V. 

BOSTON   MINISTEEED   TO   BY   THE    CONTINENT.      June — July,  1774. 

Generous  conduct  of  Marblehead  and  Salem,  67 — Intrigues  of  Gage,  67 — 
Boston  town  meeting,  68 — The  town  approve  their  committee  of  corre- 
spondence, 69 — Addresses  to  Hutchinson,  69 — Gage's  proclamation,  69 — 
Threats  of  arrest,  70 — Threats  not  executed,  71 — Hutchinson  reaches  Eng- 
land, 71 — His  interview  with  the  king,  71 — Confidence  of  the  king,  72 — Bos- 
ton ministered  to  by  the  Carolinas,  73 — By  Connecticut,  73 — By  Quebec,  74 
—By  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  74. 

CHAPTEE  YI. 

AMEEIOA   EESOLVES   TO   MEET   IN   GENEEAL   OONGEESS.      July,  1774. 

Public  spirit  in  New  York.  76 — State  of  parties,  77 — Character  of  John 
Jay,  78 — Nomination  of  New  York  delegates  to  congress,  78 — Opposition  to 
the  nomination,  79 — First  public  appearance  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  79— 


CONTENTS.  9 

Differences  of  opinion  in  the  New  York  committee,  80—  Formation  of  two 
parties,  81  —  South  Carolina  elects  its  deputies,  81  —  Timidity  of  Dickinson,  82 
—  Pennsylvania  chooses  its  deputies,  82  —  New  Jersey,  82  —  New  Hampshire, 
83  —  Compromise  between  the  parties  in  New  York,  83  —  Virginia  meets  in 
convention,  83  —  Opinions  of  Jefferson,  83  —  Virginia  forbids  the  slave  trade, 
84—  Opinions  of  Washington,  84—  Decision  of  Virginia,  85. 

CHAPTEK  YH. 

THE  CABINET   OF    LOUI8  THE  SIXTEENTH.      July  —  August,  1774. 

Character  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  86  —  Choice  of  Maurepas  as  chief  minis- 
ter, 87  —  Character  of  Maurepas,  87  —  Vergennes  minister  of  foreign  affairs, 
89  —  His  character,  89  —  Turgot  minister  of  finance,  90  —  Abuses  in  the  French 
finances,  91  —  Turgot  plans  reform.  92  —  Sartine  becomes  minister  of  the 
marine,  93  —  France  leans  to  the  colonies,  93. 


CHAPTEK 

HOW  THE  MANDAMUS  OOTJNOILLOKS  WEEE  DEALT  WITH.      August,  1774. 

Gage  receives  the  regulating  act,  94  —  Character  of  the  act,  94  —  Two 
other  acts  against  Massachusetts,  97  —  The  question  between  America  and 
Britain  changed,  97  —  Boston  consults  the  country  towns,  98  —  Answer  from 
Pepperell,  99  —  General  spirit  of  resistance,  100  —  Thomas  Gardner,  100  — 
Number  of  the  militia,  101  —  Putnam  visits  Boston,  101—  Charles  Lee,  101  — 
Opinions  of  Hawley,  102  —  Courts  of  Hampshire  broken  up,  103  —  Mandamus 
councillors  terrified,  103—  Buggies  of  Hardwick,  104—  Timothy  Paine,  104 
—Murray  of  Kutland,  104  —  Willard  resigns,  105—  And  Watson,  105. 

CHAPTEK  IX. 

MASSACHUSETTS  DEFEATS  THE  BEGULATING  ACT.      August,  1774. 

The  Massachusetts  delegates  pass  through  Connecticut,  106  —  They  reach 
the  Hudson,  107—  New  York  disinclined  to  war,  107—  Suffolk  county  con 
vention,  108  —  Convention  of  three  counties  in  Boston,  109  —  Court  at  Spring- 
field interrupted,  110  —  Supreme  court  in  Boston,  111  —  Middlesex  convention 
at  Concord,  112. 

CHAPTEK  X. 

THE  SUFFOLK  COUNTY  CONVENTION.    September,  1774. 

Gage  seizes  the  powder  of  the  province,  114—  The  people  rise,  114—  More 
councillors  resign,  115—  Good  conduct  of  the  people,  116  —  Opinions  of 


10  CONTENTS. 

Charles  Fox,  116 — Gage  requires  more  troops,  117 — Gage  wishes  to  raise 
Canadians  and  Indians,  117 — England  seeks  Indian  alliances,  118 — And  to 
subdue  by  terror,  119 — Rising  of  the  people,  120 — Courage  of  Putnam,  121 — 
Consequences  of  the  rising,  121 — Gage  fortifies  Boston,  122 — The  court  at 
"Worcester  interrupted,  122 — The  Suffolk  convention,  122 — Its  resolutions. 
123 — Fearlessness  of  "Warren,  124 — Massachusetts  wishes  to  revive  its  old 

charter,  124. 

i 

CHAPTEK  XL 

THE  CONTINENT  STJPPOETS  MASSACHUSETTS.    September,  1774. 

Spirit  of  the  deputies  to  congress,  126 — The  congress  organized,  127— 
The  method  of  voting,  127 — Great  debate,  128 — Congress  votes  by  colonies, 
130 — Congress  opened  with  prayer,  131 — The  psalm  for  the  day,  132 — De- 
bate on  the  foundation  of  colonial  rights,  132 — Extent  of  those  rights,  133 — 
Influence  of  Samuel  Adams,  134 — Congress  approve  the  resolutions  of  the 
county  of  Suffolk,  134 — The  king  dissolves  parliament,  135. 


CHAPTEK  XII. 

THE   CONTINENTAL  OONGEESS  SEEKS  TO  AVERT  INDEPENDENCE. 

September— October,  1774. 

Uncertainty  of  Gage,  136 — Determined  resistance  of  New  England,  137 — 
Gage  dares  not  meet  the  Massachusetts  assembly,  137 — The  general  con- 
gress avoid  theories,  138 — Their  retrospect  for  grievances,  139 — John  Adams 
consents  to  the  acts  of  navigation,  139 — Congress  makes  the  concession,  140 
— Insidious  plan  of  Galloway,  140 — His  defeat,  141 — Pennsylvania  elects 
Dickinson  to  congress,  141 — Sympathy  of  congress  for  Boston,  142 — Spirit 
of  Maryland,  143. 

CHAPTEK  XHI. 

OONGEESS  WILL  MAKE  THE  LAST  APPEAL  IF  NEOESSAET.      October,  1774. 

Firmness  of  Washington,  144 — Congress  approves  the  resistance  of  Mas- 
sachusetts to  the  acts  of  parliament,  145 — The  declaration  of  rights,  146 — 
Congress  threatens  to  stop  British  imports  and  exports,  147 — The  slave 
trade  wholly  discontinued,  148 — Address  to  the  British  people,  148 — Con- 
gress petitions  the  king,  149 — Independence  not  yet  desired,  150 — Spirit  of 
the  members  of  congress,  151 — Patrick  Henry  predicts  war,  152. 


CONTENTS.  11 

C^APTEK  XIY. 

HOW   CATHOLIC   EMANCIPATION   BEGAN.       October,  1774. 

Patrick  Henry's  opinion  of  Washington,  153 — The  Massachusetts  assem- 
bly forms  itself  into  a  provincial  congress,  153 — The  trepidation  of  Gage, 
154 — Measures  adopted  by  the  provincial  congress,  154 — Acts  of  Connecti- 
cut, 155 — Massachusetts  conforms  to  her  second  charter,  155 — Beginning  of 
the  emancipation  of  Catholics,  156 — Canadian  Catholics  in  part  enfranchised, 
156 — Restoration  of  the  French  system  of  law,  157 — Canadian  nobility  con- 
ciliated, 157 — Establishment  of  the  Catholic  worship,  157 — Satisfaction  of  the 
clergy,  158 — The  American  congress  gets  the  better  of  its  bigotry  against 
Catholics,  159— -Their  address  to  the  Canadians,  159. 

CHAPTEK  XY. 

THE   GOVERNOE   OP  VIRGINIA  NULLmES   THE   QUEBEC   ACT.       October — 

November,  1774. 

Virginia  opposes  the  Quebec  act,  161 — Dunmore's  rapacity,  161 — He 
takes  possession  of  Pittsburg  and  its  dependencies,  162 — Disputed  jurisdiction 
in  the  North-west,  163 — The  backwoodsmen,  163 — Murders  by  the  Indians, 
164 — The  backwoodsmen  take  revenge,  165 — Murders  near  Yellow  Creek, 
165 — Beginning  of  the  Indian  war,  166 — Logan's  revenge,  166 — Dunmore 
calls  out  the  militia,  167— The  rally  of  the  South-west  at  Louisburg,  167 — 
They  march  on  the  mountains,  167 — They  encamp  on  Point  Pleasant,  168 — 
Great  Indian  battle,  168— Victory  of  the  Virginians,  169— The  Virginians 
cross  the  Ohio  river,  170 — Logan's  message,  170 — Dunmore  concludes  a 
peace  with  the  Shawanese,  170 — Spirit  of  the  Western  Virginians,  171. 

CHAPTEK  XYI. 

THE  FOURTEENTH  PARLIAMENT  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN.      October — December,  1774. 

Opinions  of  Warren,  173— Franklin  and  George  the  Third,  174— The  elec- 
tions to  parliament,  174 — The  French  minister  bargains  for  a  borough,  174— 
The  general  venality,  175 — Westminster  elects  tories,  175 — Despondency  of 
Burke,  176 — His  election  at  Bristol,  176 — William  Howe  returned  for 
Nottingham,  176 — The  king  declares  the  New  England  governments  in  a 
state  of  rebellion,  177 — Debate  in  the  house  of  lords,  178 — In  the  house  of 
commons,  179 — Lord  North  wishes  to  negotiate,  179 — The  frankness  of 
Franklin,  180 — Confidence  of  the  ministry,  181 — Firmness  of  the  congress 
of  Massachusetts,  182 — Seizure  of  cannon  near  Newport,  183— Of  arms  and 
powder  at  Portsmouth,  184 — Condition  of  Massachusetts,  164 — Its  clergy, 
184 — Magnanimity  of  Boston,  185. 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE  XYH 

THE  KING  EEJEOTS  THE  OFFEEs  OF  ooNGBEss.  December,  1774 — January,  1776. 

Franklin  presents  the  petition  of  congress,  186— The  minister  at  war 
disheartened,  187 — Lord  Howe  negotiates  with  Franklin,  188— -Franklin's 
proposal  rejected,  189 — Jamaica  offers  its  mediation,  189 — Views  of  the  French 
ministry,  190 — Chatham's  position,  190 — His  interview  with  Franklin,  191 — 
Oamden's  opinion,  191 — Chatham  and  Rockingham  differ,  192 — A  cabinet 
council  rejects  the  proposals  of  congress,  193. 

CHAPTEK  XYHI. 

CHATHAM  LAYS  THE  FOUNDATION  OF- PEACE.    January  20th,  1775. 

American  papers  laid  before  Parliament,  194 — Virginia  Presbyterians  in 
council,  194 — Their  decision,  195 — Chatham  proposes  to  remove  the  army 
from  Boston,  196 — His  speech,  196 — His  eulogy  of  the  American  people,  197 
— Their  union,  197 — Their  independence,  198— Their  spirit  of  liberty,  199— 
Wisdom  of  congress,  200— The  king's  anger  at  Chatham,  201— The  debate  in 
the  house  of  lords,  202— Good  effects  of  Chatham's  speech.  203. 

CHAPTEE  XIX. 

THE  PEOPLE  OF  NEW  YOBS:  TETiE  TO  UNION.    January — February,  1775. 

Firm  union  of  the  continent,  205 — Accession  of  a  part  of  Georgia.  206 — 
Movements  in  Virginia,  206 — Maryland  and  Delaware,  207 — Intrigues  in  New 
York,  208 — The  hopes  of  royalists  increase,  209 — The  New  York  assembly 
false  to  the  congress,  210 — The  conflict  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey, 
211 — The  New  York  assembly  refuse  to  send  delegates  to  the  next  con- 
gress. 212— The  press  of  New  York,  212— Pamphlets  of  Hamilton,  213. 

CHAPTEE  XX. 

PARLIAMENT  DEOLAEES  MASSACHUSETTS  IN  EEBELLION.      Jan.  23 — Feb.  9,  1775. 

Plans  of  the  ministry,  217 — Parliament  unrelenting,  218 — Instructions  to 
Gage  to  act  offensively,  218 — Chatham  interposes,  219 — Debate  in  the  house 
of  lords,  220 — Chatham's  tribute  to  Franklin,  220 — His  invective  against  the 
ministers,  221 — His  bill  for  conciliation  rejected,  222 — The  house  of  com- 
mons in  committee  declare  Massachusetts  in  rebellion,  223 — Renewed  nego- 
tiation with  Franklin,  224 — Renewed  debate  in  the  house  of  commons,  224 
—Angry  debate  in  the  house  of  lords,  225 — Joint  address  of  parliament,  227. 


CONTENTS.  13 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
THE  SPIEIT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    February,  1775. 

Massachusetts  appoints  its  committee  of  safety,  228— Their  firmness,  229 
— Their  measures  for  defence,  229 — Military  preparation,  230 — Leonard  re- 
commends submission,  231 — The  reply  of  John  Adams,  232. 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

HAS  NEW  ENGLAND  A  EIGHT  IN  THE  NEWFOUNDLAND  FISHERIES?      Feb.,  1775. 

Lord  North  proposes  to  exclude  New  England  from  the  fisheries,  239 — 
Concessions  to  the  French,  240 — Lord  North  in  favor  of  sending  commission- 
ers to  America,  241 — Consultation  with  Franklin,  241 — Lord  North  proposes 
a  plan  of  conciliation,  242 — He  loses  his  control  of  the  house  of  commons, 
243 — Inadequateness  of  his  offer,  244 — Appointment  of  Howe  as  general,  244 
— Of  Lord  Howe  as  admiral  and  commissioner,  245—  Clinton  and  Burgoyne, 
245 — Burgoyne  rebuked  246 — Holland  menaced,  246 — Opinions  on  Lord 
North's  proposal,  247. 

CHAPTER  XXIH. 

THE  ANXIVEESAEY  OF  THE  BOSTON  MASSAOEE.    February — March,  1775. 

Spirit  of  the  Dutch  Americans,  249— Of  Western  Virginia,  250 — Of  South 
Carolina,  251 — Of  Boston.  251 — Expedition  to  Salem,  252— Confidence  of  the 
king,  253 — Boston  commemorates  the  massacre,  253 — Speech  of  Warren, 
254 — The  army  in  Boston  becomes  incensed,  256. 

CHAPTER  XXIY. 

PUBLIC    OPINION   IN   ENGLAND.      March,  1775. 

Character  of  Samuel  Johnson,  257 — His  Taxation  no  Tyranny,  258 — 
Johnson  on  his  death-bed,  260— Wesley  for  the  court,  260— Camden  speaks 
for  America,  261 — Sandwich  calls  the  Americans  cowards,  262 — Indignation 
of  Franklin,  262— Franklin's  interview  with  the  French  minister,  262— His 
interview  with  Burke,  263 — He  sails  for  America,  264 — Franklin's  sincerity. 
264 — He  retains  the  confidence  of  the  liberal  statesmen,  265 — Edmuud  Burke 
proposes  his  plan  of  conciliation,  265 — It  is  rejected,  270. 

VOL.    VII.  2 


14  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXY. 

VIEGINIA   PEEPAEES   FOE   SELF-DEFENCE.      March — April,  1775. 

Conservative  character  of  Virginia,  271— Its  want  of  defences,  272— Meet- 
ing of  its  convention,  272 — Patrick  Henry  proposes  a  posture  of  defence, 
278— Objections,  273— Reply  of  Patrick  Henry,  273— Of  Lee,  275— Patrick 
Henry's  plan  adopted,  275 — Dunmore  carries  off  the  gunpowder  in  the  colony's 
magazine,  275 — The  people  threaten  to  rise,  276 — Dunmore  threatens  to  free 
and  arm  the  slaves,  276 — The  spirit  of  Virginia,  276 — Moderating  advice,  277. 

CHAPTER  XXYI. 

THE   KING   WAITS   TO   HEAE   THE   SUCCESS   OF   LOED   NOETH'S   PEOPOSITION. 

April— May,  1775. 

Massachusetts  hears  of  the  measures  adopted  in  England,  278 — Warren 
confident  of  success,  279 — Measures  of  precaution  towards  the  Indians,  279 — 
Plan  to  seize  Ticonderoga,  280 — Preparations  of  Massachusetts  for  the  war, 
280 — Confidence  of  Gage,  281 — The  citizens  of  London  intercede  for  America, 
282 — Confident  promises  of  Hutchinson,  282 — Measures  of  the  king  in  North 
Carolina,  282— State  of  things  in  New  York,  283 — The  king  confident  of  win- 
ning New  York,  284 — Sagacity  of  Vergennes,  284 — Fresh  orders  to  Gage  to 
act  on  the  offensive,  284 — Dalrymple's  pamphlet  for  America,  285 — How  far 
Lord  North  was  false,  286 — Increasing  confidence  of  the  .king,  286 — Great 
expectation  throughout  Europe,  287. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

LEXINGTON.     April  19  th,  1775. 

Gage  sends  an  expedition  to  Concord,  288 — Messengers  sent  in  advance 
from  Boston,  289 — The  country  roused,  290 — The  news  received  at  Concord, 
290 — At  Acton,  290 — Lexington,  291 — Its  militia  and  alarm  men  turn  out, 
291 — Pitcairn  approaches  the  common,  292 — The  minute  men  paraded.  292 — 
The  British  begin  the  attack,  293 — The  minute  men  disperse,  293 — Some 
return  the  fire,  293 — The  victims,  294 — Daybreak,  294 — Forerunners  of  the 
village  heroes,  295 — Prophecy  of  Samuel  Adams,  296. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

TO   OONOOED   AND   BACK   TO   BOSTON.       April  19th,  1775. 

The  British  march  for  Concord,  297— First  rally  of  the  people,  298 — They 
retreat  beyond  the  river,  298 — The  British  enter  Concord,  298 — The  men  of 


CONTENTS.  15 

Acton,  299 — The  rally  of  the  Americans,  299 — Destruction  of  stores  by  the 
British,  300 — Deliberation  of  the  Americans  about  resisting,  300 — Origin  of 
the  revolution,  301 — The  Americans  advance,  302— The  British  fire,  302— 
The  first  martyrs  at  Concord,  303— The  battle,  303— The  British  retreat,  304 
— The  Americans  give  chase,  304 — Pursuit  through  Lincoln,  305 — And  Lex- 
ington, 305 — Arrival  of  Lord  Percy  with  reinforcements,  306 — Further  retreat 
of  the  British,  307 — Their  pursuit,  307— Incidents  in  Cambridge,  308— The 
British  reach  Charlestown,  309 — The  king's  army  besieged,  310 — Importance 
of  the  day,  310. 

CHAPTEK  XXIX. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  OONOOBD :    THE  ALAEM.      April,  1775. 

The  alarm  spreads  over  the  country,  311 — Beyond  the  Alleghanies,  312— 
The  people  of  Massachusetts  rush  to  the  camp,  313 — Men  of  New  Hampshire, 
314 — John  Stark,  314 — The  men  of  Connecticut,  315 — Israel  Putnam,  315— 
Movements  in  Ehode  Island,  316 — Character  of  the  army,  317 — Mortification 
of  the  British  officers,  318 — How  far  Percy  forgot  himself,  318. 


CHAPTEK  XXX. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND   OONCOED,  Continued :    THE  CAMP  OF 

LIBERTY.    April — May,  1775. 

Sufferings  of  the  people  of  Boston,  320 — Connecticut  oners  mediation,  321 
— The  camp  of  liberty,  321 — Want  of  military  stores,  322— Proposed  expedi- 
tion against  Quebec,  323— Want  of  money,  323 — State  of  the  currency,  324— 
Massachusetts  desires  to  take  up  government,  324 — Formation  of  the  Ameri- 
can army,  325 — Greene  of  Khode  Island,  325 — His  character,  326. 


CHAPTEK  XXXI. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  OONCOED,  Continued  :    THE  GENEEAL 

EISING.    April — May,  1775. 

Excitement  at  New  York,  328 — A  new  committee,  329 — And  association, 
329 — Address  from  New  York  to  London,  330 — Reception  of  the  delegates 
from  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  331 — Spirit  of  New  Jersey,  332 — Of 
Pennsylvania,  332 — Of  Delaware  and  Maryland,  333 — The  rising  in  Virginia, 
334 — Triumph  of  Patrick  Henry,  335. 


16  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  OONOOED,  continued:  TICONDEBOGA 
TAKEN.    May,  1775. 

Proceedings  in  South  Carolina,  336— In  Georgia,  337— Rising  of  the  men 
of  Vermont,  338 — They  cross  Lake  Champlain,  339— Surprise  of  Ticonderoga. 
339 — The  commander  surrenders,  340. 


CHAPTEK  XXXHL 

EFFECTS   OF   THE   DAY   OF   LEXINGTON   AND   OONCOED   IN  EUROPE. 

May  to  July,  1775. 

The  news  from  Lexington  at  London,  342 — Expressions  of  sorrow,  343 — 
Address  of  the  citizens  of  London,  344 — Society  for  constitutional  informa- 
tion, 344 — Hutchinson's  false  information,  345 — How  the  French  viewed  the 
event,  345 — The  conduct  of  Gage  condemned,  345 — Discontent  of  Lord  North 
346 — People  of  England  unwilling  to  engage  in  the  war,  347 — Meeting  of  the 
cabinet,  347 — Various  proposals,  347 — The  king  resolves  to  apply  for  Rus- 
sian troops,  348 — Arms  sent  out  for  Indians  and  negroes,  349 — The  king 
calls  on  his  allies  the  Six  Nations,  349— The  king's  brother  at  Metz,  350 
— A  young  enthusiast  for  America,  350 — State  of  opinion  in  Paris,  351 — 
Opinions  of  Vergennes,  351 — French  emissary  to  be  sent  to  America,  352. 

CHAPTEK  XXXIY. 

THE   SECOND    CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS.      May,  1775. 

Meeting  of  the  second  congress,  353 — Its  weakness,  353 — Origin  of  Ameri- 
can public  law,  354 — Difficulty  of  getting  an  expression  of  public  opinion,  355 
— Continued  attachment  of  the  Americans  to  England,  356 — Indecision  of 
congress,  357 — First  deputy  from  Georgia,  357 — Congress  instructs  New 
York  to  permit  the  landing  of  British  troops,  358 — Consequences  of  this  ad- 
vice, 358 — Conduct  of  New  York,  359 — Jay  proposes  a  second  petition  to  the 
king,  360. 

CHAPTEE  XXXY. 

THE   EE VOLUTION   EMANATES    FEOM   THE   PEOPLE.      May,  1775. 

Congress  hesitates  to  approve  the  taking  of  Ticonderoga,  361 — The  affair 
on  Grape  island,  362 — Skirmish  near  Noddle's  island,  363 — Success  on  the 
northern  frontier,  364 — Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  garrisoned,  365 — Ken- 
tucky settled,  366— Its  first  assembly,  366— The  session  opened,  367 — The 
laws  of  Transylvania,  368 — Perfect  religious  freedom,  369 — Further  career  of 


CONTENTS.  17 

Daniel  Boone,  370 — Spirit  of  the  county  of  Mecklenburg,  370 — They  declare 
independence,  371 — They  establish  a  government  of  their  own,  372 — They 
publish  their  resolves  to  the  world,  378 — Alarm  of  Governor  Martin,  373. 


CHAPTEK  XXXVI. 

CONGEES8   OFFEES   TO  NEGOTIATE  WITH   THE   KING.      May,  1775. 

Spirit  of  congress,  375 — Conduct  of  Washington,  375 — Of  New  England, 
376— Of  South  Carolina,  376— Of  Dickinson,  377— Of  Pennsylvania,  377— Of 
Mifflin  and  Franklin,  377 — Dickinson  advocates  a  second  petition  to  the  king, 
378 — Hancock  chosen  president,  378 — Measures  of  defence,  379 — Duane  pro- 
poses a  negotiation,  379 — Congress  considers  North's  proposition,  379 — The 
compromise,  380 — Duane's  motion  carried,  380 — Its  consequences,  380 — Mis- 
givings of  congress,  381 — Address  to  the  Canadians,  381 — The  address  ineffec- 
tual, 382 — Propositions  received  from  Lord  North,  382 — They  are  laid  on  the 
table,  383. 

CHAPTEE  XXXYII. 

MASSACHUSETTS  ASKS  FOE   GEOEGE   WASHINGTON  AS   OOMMANDEB  IN   CHIEF. 

June  1—17, 1775. 

Dumnore  convenes  the  Virginia  legislature,  384 — Opinions  of  Jefferson, 
384 — Last  use  of  the  king's  veto  power,  385 — The  governor  temporizes,  386 — 
He  withdraws,  386 — Answer  of  the  burgesses  to  Lord  North's  proposition, 
386 — Shelburne's  opinion  on  the  answer,  388 — Vergennes,  388 — Massachu- 
setts asks  of  congress  leave  to  take  up  government.  388 — Congress  to  assume 
the  army,  389 — And  elect  a  generalissimo,  389 — John  Adams  and  Samuel 
Adams  advise  the  choice  of  Washington,  390 — Congress  borrows  money,  391 
— Its  policy,  391 — The  twelve  united  colonies,  391 — Advice  to  Massachusetts, 
391— Proclamation  of  Gage,  392— Martial  law  established,  392— His  advice  to 
the  ministry,  392 — New  York  disclaims  the  desire  of  independence,  393 — The 
general  congress  appoint  a  fast,  393 — The  American  continental  army,  393 — 
Washington  chosen  general,  393 — His  person,  394 — His  education,  394 — His 
early  life,  394 — His  courage,  396— Cheerfulness,  396 — Liberality,  396— His 
disinterestedness,  396 — His  passions  and  his  judgment,  397 — His  secrecy,  397 
— His  attention  to  details,  397 — His  comprehensiveness,  397 — His  modera- 
tion, 398 — Washington  a  Southerner,  398 — Washington  the  representative  of 
his  country,  398 — His  character  religious,  398 — His  goodness,  399 — His  am- 
bition, 399 — His  love  of  fame,  400 — His  greatness,  400 — He  commands  uni- 
versal confidence,  401 — The  difficulties  before  him,  401 — He  accepts,  402 — 
Congress  adhere  to  him,  402 — His  commission,  402 — His  trust  in  Provi- 
dence, 403 — Good  effect  of  his  appointment,  403. 

VOL.    VII.  2* 


18  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

PKESCOTT  OCCUPIES  BREED'S  HILL.    June  16-17,  1775. 

Condition  of  the  army  round  Boston,  404 — Want  of  order,  404 — And  of 
subordination,  405 — Prudence  of  "Ward,  405 — Expectations  in  England,  406 — 
Heights  of  Dorchester  and  Charlestown,  407 — His  design  to  occupy  Charles- 
town,  408 — The  committee  of  safety  anticipate  him,  408 — Fresco tt  marches 
to  Charlestown,  409— Breed's  Hill  fortified,  410— Daybreak,  £10— Surprise 
of  the  British,  410 — Prescott  strengthens  his  defences,  411 — Gage  orders  an 
attack,  411— Courage  of  Prescott  and  his  band,  412— Putnam  on  Breed's 
Hill,  412 — Embarkation  of  British  troops,  413 — They  land  in  Charlestown 
413 — Prescott  prepares  to  oppose  them,  414 — State  of  his  defences,  414 — The 
confusion  at  head  quarters,  415. 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

BUNKER   HILL  BATTLE.      June  17,  1775. 

Ward  avoids  a  general  action,  416— Spirit  of  the  array,  416— Seth  Pome- 
roy  volunteers,  417 — Joseph  Warren,  417 — Men  of  Worcester,  Middlesex, 
and  Essex  counties,  418 — Stark  marches  to  Charlestown,  419 — He  completes 
the  line  to  the  Mystic,  419 — Putnam  gives  orders  to  Chester's  company  to 
march,  420— Number  of  Howe's  forces,  420— Further  orders  of  Ward,  421 — 
Number  of  the  Americans,  421 — Free  negroes  in  the  battle,  421 — Charlestown 
burned,  422— Howe's  first  attack,  422— Conduct  of  Prescott,  423— The  British 
advance,  423— Their  reception,  424 — Their  retreat,  424 — The  British  at  the 
rail  fence,  424 — Joy  of  the  Americans,  424 — Second  attack  of  the  British,  425 
— They  are  driven  again  from  the  redoubt,  425 — Great  slaughter  of  the  British 
right  wing,  425 — The  spectators  of  the  battle,  426 — Prescott  has  no  more 
powder,  426. 

CHAPTER  XL. 

THE   RESULT   OF   BUNKER   HILL   BATTLE.      June  17,  1775. 

The  third  attack  on  the  redoubt,  428 — Resistance  of  the  Americans,  429 
—Fall  of  Pitcairn,  429— Prescott  gave  the  word  to  retreat,  429— Knowlton 
and  Stark  retreat,  430 — Putnam  takes  possession  of  Prospect  Hill,  431 — Pres- 
cott at  head  quarters,  431 — The  British  make  no  pursuit,  431 — The  British 
loss  in  the  battle,  431 — Howe  not  wounded,  432 — Loss  of  the  Americans,  432 
— Parker,  Moore,  Buckminster,  Nixon,  McLary,  Gardner,  432 — Death  and 
character  of  Warren,  433 — Gage's  opinion  of  the  battle,  434— Opinion  of 
Ward,  Washington,  and  Franklin,  435. 


THE 


AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

EPOCH  THIRD. 

AMERICA  DECLARES  ITSELF  INDEPENDENT. 

1774—1776. 


AMERICA  DECLARES  ITSELF  INDEPENDENT, 


CHAPTEE   I. 

AMERICA,  BRITAIN  AND  FRANCE,  IN  MAY,  1774. 

MAY,  m4. 

THE  hour  of  the  American  Revolution  was  come.  CHAP. 
The  people  of  the  continent  with  irresistible  energy  ^^^• 
obeyed  one  general  impulse,  as  the  earth  in  spring  1774. 
listens  to  the  command  of  nature,  and  without  the 
appearance  of  effort  bursts  forth  to  life  in  perfect 
harmony.  The  change  which  Divine  wisdom  or- 
dained, and  which  no  human  policy  or  force  could 
hold  back,  proceeded  as  uniformly  and  as  majestically 
as  the  laws  of  being,  and  was  as  certain  as  the  decrees 
of  eternity.  The  movement  was  quickened,  even 
when  it  was  most  resisted ;  and  its  fiercest  adversa- 
ries worked  together  effectually  for  its  fulfilment. 
The  indestructible  elements  of  freedom  in  the  colonies 
asked  room  for  expansion  and  growth.  Standing  in 
manifold  relations  with  the  governments,  the  culture, 
and  the  experience  of  the  pastr  the  Americans  seized 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  as  their  peculiar  inheritance  the  traditions  of  liberty. 
Beyond  any  other  nation  they  had  made  trial  of  the 
POS8ible  forms  of  popular  representation;  and  re- 
spected the  activity  of  individual  conscience  and 
thought.  The  resources  of  the  vast  country  in  agri- 
culture and  commerce,  forests  and  fisheries,  mines  and 
materials  for  manufactures,  were  so  diversified  and 
complete,  that  their  development  could  neither  be 
guided  nor  circumscribed  by  a  government  beyond 
the  ocean  ;  the  numbers,  purity,  culture,  industry,  and 
daring  of  its  inhabitants  proclaimed  the  existence  of 
a  people,  rich  in  creative  energy,  and  ripe  for  institu- 
tions of  their  own. 

They  were  rushing  towards  revolution,  and  they 
knew  it  not.  They  refused  to  acknowledge  even  to 
themselves  the  hope  that  was  swelling  within  them ; 
and  yet  they  were  possessed  by  the  truth,  that  man 
holds  inherent  and  indefeasible  rights ;  and  as  their  re- 
ligion had  its  witness  coeval  and  coextensive  with  intel- 
ligence, so  in  their  political  aspirations  they  deduced 
from  universal  principles  a  bill  of  rights,  as  old  as  cre- 
ation and  as  wide  as  humanity.  The  idea  of  freedom 
had  never  been  wholly  unknown ;  it  had  always  reveal- 
ed itself  at  least  to  a  few  of  the  wise,  whose  prophetic 
instincts  were  quickened  by  love  of  their  kind ;  its  rising 
light  flashed  joy  across  the  darkest  centuries ;  and  its 
growing  energy  can  be  traced  in  the  tendency  of  the 
ages.  In  America  it  was  the  breath  of  life  to  the  people. 
For  the  first  time  it  found  a  region  and  a  race,  where  it 
could  be  professed  with  the  earnestness  of  an  indwell- 
ing conviction,  and  be  defended  with  the  enthusiasm 
that  heretofore  had  marked  no  wars  but  those  for 
religion.  When  all  Europe  slumbered  over  questions 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAY,    1774          23 

of  liberty,  a  band  of  exiles,  keeping  watch  by  night,  CHAP. 
heard  the  glad  tidings  which  promised  the  po- 
litical  regeneration  of  the  world.  A  revolution, 
unexpected  in  the  moment  of  its  coming,  but  pre- 
pared by  glorious  forerunners,  grew  naturally  and 
necessarily  out  of  the  series  of  past  events  by  the  for- 
mative principle  of  a  living  belief.  And  why  should 
man  organize  resistance  to  the  grand  design  of  Prov- 
idence ?  Why  should  not  the  consent  of  the  ancestral 
land  and  the  gratulations  of  every  other  call  the 
young  nation  to  its  place  among  the  powers  of  the 
earth?  Britain  was  the  mighty  mother  who  bred 
and  formed  men  capable  of  laying  the  foundation  of 
so  noble  an  empire ;  and  she  alone  could  have  formed 
them.  She  had  excelled  all  nations  of  the  world  as 
the  planter  of  colonies.  The  condition  which  entitled 
her  colonies  to  independence  was  now  more  than 
fulfilled.  Their  vigorous  vitality  refused  conformity 
to  foreign  laws  and  external  rule.  They  could  take 
no  other  way  to  perfection  than  by  the  unconstrained 
development  of  that  which  was  within  them.  They 
were  not  only  able  to  govern  themselves,  they  alone 
were  able  to  do  so ;  subordination  visibly  repressed 
their  energies.  It  was  only  by  self-direction  that 
they  could  at  all  times  and  in  entireness  freely  em- 
ploy in  action  their  collective  and  individual  powers 
to  the  fullest  extent  of  their  ever  increasing  intelli- 
gence. Could  not  the  illustrious  nation  which  had 
gained  no  distinction  in  war,  in  literature,  or  in  science, 
comparable  to  that  of  having  wisely  founded  distant 
settlements  on  a  system  of  liberty,  willingly  perfect 
its  beneficent  work,  now  when  no  more  was  required 
than  the  acknowledgment  that  its  offspring  was  come 


24  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  of  age,  and  its  own  duty  accomplished  ?  Why  must 
the  ripening  of  lineal  virtue  be  struck  at,  as  rebellion 
in  ^e  lawful  sons  •  Why  is  their  unwavering  at- 
tachment to  the  essential  principle  of  their  existence 
to  be  persecuted  as  treason,  rather  than  viewed  with 
delight  as  the  crowning  glory  of  the  country  from 
which  they  sprung?  If  the  institutions  of  Britain 
were  so  deeply  fixed  in  the  usages  and  opinions  of  its 
people,  that  their  deviations  from  justice  could  not  as 
yet  be  rectified ;  if  the  old  continent  was  pining  under 
systems  of  authority  which  were  not  fit  to  be  borne, 
and  which  as  yet  no  way  opened  to  amend,  why 
should  not  a  people  be  heartened  to  build  a  common- 
wealth in  the  wilderness,  which  alone  offered  it  a 
home  ? 

So  reasoned  a  few  in  Britain  who  were  jeered  "  as 
visionary  enthusiasts ; "  deserving  no  weight  in  public 
affairs.  Parliament  had  asserted  an  absolute  lordship 
over  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever ;  and  fretting 
itself  into  a  frenzy  at  the  denial  of  its  unlimited  do- 
minion, was  blindly  destroying  all  its  recognised 
authority  in  the  madness  of  its  zeal  for  more.  The 
majority  of  the  ministers,  including  the  most  active 
and  determined,  were  bent  on  the  immediate  employ- 
ment of  force.  Lord  North,  who  recoiled  from  civil 
war,  exercised  no  control  over  his  colleagues,  leaving 
the  government  to  be  conducted  by  the  several  de- 
partments. As  a  consequence,  the  king  became  the 
only  point  of  administrative  union,  and  ruled  as  well 
as  reigned.  In  him  an  approving  conscience  had  no 
misgiving  as  to  his  duty.  His  heart  knew  no  relent- 
ing ;  his  will  never  wavered.  Though  America  were 
to  be  drenched  in  blood  and  its  towns  reduced  to 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAT,    1774.  25 

ashes,  though  its  people  were  to  be  driven  to  struggle  CHAP. 
for  total  independence,  though  he  himself  should  find  >— . — 
it  necessary  to  bid  high  for  hosts  of  mercenaries 
from  the  Scheldt  to  Moscow,  and  in  quest  of  savage 
allies,  go  tapping  at  every  wigwam  from  Lake  Huron 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  he  was  resolved  to  coerce  the 
thirteen  colonies  into  submission.  The  people  of 
Great  Britain  identified  themselves,  though  but  for 
the  moment,  with  his  anger,  and  talked  like  so  many 
kings  of  their  subjects  beyond  the  Atlantic.  Of  their 
ability  to  crush  resistance  they  refused  to  doubt ;  nor 
did  they,  nor  the  ministers,  nor  George  the  Third, 
apprehend  interference,  except  from  that  great  neigh- 
boring kingdom  whose  vast  colonial  system  Britain 
had  just  overthrown. 

All  Europe,  though  at  peace,  was  languishing 
under  exhaustion  from  wars  of  ambition,  or  vices  of 
government,  and  crying  out  for  relief  from  abuses 
which  threatened  to  dissolve  the  old  social  order.  In 
France,  enduring  life  belonged  to  two  elements  only 
in  the  state — the  people  and  monarchical  power; 
and  every  successive  event  increased  the  importance 
of  the  one  and  the  other.  It  was  its  common  people 
which  saved  that  country  from  perishing  of  corrupt 
unbelief,  and  made  it  the  most  powerful  state  of  con- 
tinental Europe.  The  peasants,  it  is  true,  were  poor 
and  oppressed  and  ignorant ;  but  all  Frenchmen,  alike 
townspeople  and  villagers,  were  free.  There  was  no 
protecting  philanthropy  on  the  part  of  the  nobility ; 
no  hierarchy  of  mutually  dependent  ranks ;  no  soften- 
ing of  contrasts  by  the  blending  of  colors  and  harmo- 
nizing of  shades ;  the  poor,  though  gay  by  tempera- 
ment, lived  sad  and  apart ;  bereft  of  intercourse  with 

VOL.    VIL  3 


26  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  superior  culture ;  never  mirthful  but  in  mockery  of 
— '*-"  misery ;  nqf  cared  for  in  their  want,  nor  solaced  in 
hospitals>  nor  visited  in  prisons;  but  the  bonds  had 
been  struck  alike  from  the  mechanic  in  the  workshop 
and  the  hind  in  the  fields.  The  laborer  at  the  forge 
was  no  longer  a  serf;  the  lord  of  the  manor  exercised 
jurisdiction  no  more  over  vassals ;  in  all  of  old  France 
the  peasants  were  freemen,  and  in  the  happiest  prov- 
inces had  been  so  for  half  a  thousand  years.  Only  a 
few  of  them,  as  of  the  nobles  in  the  middle  ages,  could 
read ;  but  a  vast  number  owned  the  acres  which  they 
tilled.  By  lineage,  language,  universality  of  personal 
freedom,  and  diffusion  of  landed  property,  the  com- 
mon people  of  France  formed  one  compact  and  indi- 
visible nation. 

Two  circumstances  which  increased  the  wretched- 
ness of  the  third  estate,  increased  also  their  impor- 
tance. The  feudal  aristocracy  had  been  called  into 
being  for  the  protection  of  the  kingdom ;  but  in  the 
progress  of  ages,  they  had  escaped  from  the  obligation 
to  military  service.  They  abdicated  their  dignity 
as  the  peers  of  their  sovereign ;  and  though  they  still 
scorned  every  profession  but  that  of  arms,  they  re- 
ceived their  commissions  from  the  king's  favor,  and 
drew  from  his  exchequer  their  pay  as  hirelings.  Thus 
the  organization  of  the  army  ceased  to  circumscribe 
royal  power,  which  now  raised  soldiers  directly  from 
the  humbler  classes.  The  defence  of  the  country  had 
passed  from  the  king  and  his  peers  with  their  vassals 
to  the  king  in  direct  connection  with  those  vassals 
who  were  thus  become  a  people. 

Again,  the  nobility,  carefully  securing  the  exemp- 
tion of  their  own  estates,  had,  in  their  struggles  with 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAY,  1774.  27 

the  central  power,  betrayed  the  commons,  by  allow-  CHAP. 
ing  the  monarch  to  tax  them  at  will.  Proving  false 
to  their  trust  as  the  privileged  guardians  of  liberty, 
and  renouncing  the  military  service  that  had  formed 
the  motive  to  their  creation,  they  made  themselves  an 
insulated  and  worthless  caste.  All  that  was  beneficent 
in  feudalism  had  died  out.  Soulless  relics  of  the  past, 
the  nobles  threw  up  their  hereditary  rustic  indepen- 
dence to  fasten  themselves  as  courtiers  upon  the 
treasury.  They  hung  like  a  burden  on  the  state, 
which  they  no  longer  guided,  nor  sustained,  nor  de- 
fended, nor  consoled.  Some  few  among  them,  rising 
superior  to  their  rank,  helped  to  bear  society  onwards 
to  its  regeneration;  but  as  a  class  their  life  was 
morally  at  an  end.  France  could  throw  them  off  as 
readily  as  a  stag  sheds  its  antlers.  They  had  abdi- 
cated their  political  importance,  which  passed  to  the 
people.  The  imposts  which  they  refused  to  share, 
and  which  in  two  centuries  had  increased  tenfold,  fell 
almost  exclusively  on  the  lowly,  who  toiled  and  suf- 
fered, having  no  redress  against  those  employed  by 
the  government ;  regarding  the  monarch  with  touch- 
ing reverence  and  love,  though  they  knew  him  mostly 
as  the  power  that  harried  them ;  ruled  as  though  joy 
were  no  fit  companion  for  labor ;  as  though  want  were 
the  necessary  goad  to  industry,  and  sorrow  the  only 
guarantee  of  quiet.  They  were  the  strength  of  the 
kingdom,  the  ceaseless  producers  of  its  wealth ;  the 
repairer  of  its  armies ;  the  sole  and  exhaustless  source 
of  its  revenue;  an'd  yet,  in  their  forlornness,  they 
cherished  scarcely  a  dim  vision  of  a  happier  futurity 
below. 

Meantime  monarchy  was  concentrating  a  mass  of 


28  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  power,  which  a  strong  arm  could  wield  with  irresist- 
— , —  ible  effect,  which  an  effeminate  squanderer  could  not 
exnaus^-  Instead  of  a  sovereign  restrained  by  his 
equals,  and  depending  on  free  grants  from  the  states, 
one  will  commanded  a  standing  army,  and  imposed 
taxes  on  the  unprivileged  classes.  These  taxes,  more- 
over, it  collected  by  its  own  officers,  so  that  through- 
out all  the  provinces  of  France  an  administration  of 
plebeians,  accountable  to  the  king  alone,  superseded 
in  substance,  though  not  always  in  form,  the  ancient 
methods  of  feudalism. 

Like  the  army  and  the  treasury  the  establishment 
of  religion  was  subordinate  to  the  crown.  The  Cath- 
olic church  assumes  to  represent  the  Divine  wisdom 
itself,  and  as  a  logical  consequence,  the  law  which  it 
interprets  should  be  higher  than  the  temporal  power. 
The  Gallican  church  owned  allegiance  to  the  state  ; 
and  when  it  was  observed  that  Jesuits  had  inculcated 
the  subordination  of  the  temporal  sovereign  to  a  supe- 
rior rule  under  which  the  wicked  tyrant  might  be 
arraigned,  dethroned,  or  even  slain,  Louis  the  Fif- 
teenth uprooted  by  his  word  the  best  organized  reli- 
gious society  in  Christendom  ;  not  perceiving  that  the 
sudden  exile  of  the  Jesuits  and  their  schools  of  learning, 
left  the  rising  generation  more  easy  converts  to  unbe- 
lief. The  clergy  were  tainted  with  the  general  scep- 
ticism; they  stooped  before  the  temporal  power  to 
win  its  protection,  and  did  not  scruple  to  enforce  by 
persecution  a  semblance  of  homage  to  the  symbols  of 
religion,  of  which  the  life  was  put  to  sleep. 

The  magistrates,  with  graver  manners  than  the 
clergy  or  the  nobility,  did  not  so  much  hate  adminis- 
trative despotism  as  grasp  at  its  direction ;  they  them- 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAY,    1774.  29 

selves  had  so  scanty  means  of  self-defence  against  its  CHAP 
arm,  that  when  they  hesitated  to  register  the  king's 
decrees,  even  the  word  of  Louis  the  Fifteenth  could 
dissolve  parliaments  which  were  almost  as  .ancient  as 
the  French  monarchy  itself. 

For  the  benefit  of  the  king's  treasury,  free  charters, 
granted  or  confirmed  in  the  middle  ages  to  towns  and 
cities,  had  over  and  over  again  been  confiscated,  to  be 
ransomed  by  the  citizens,  or  sold  to  an  oligarchy ;  so 
that  municipal  liberties  were  no  longer  independent 
of  the  royal  caprice. 

France  was  the  most  lettered  nation  of  the  world, 
and  its  authors  loved  to  be  politicians.  Of  these  the 
conservative  class,  whose  fanatical  partisanship  in- 
cluded in  their  system  of  order  the  continuance  of 
every  established  abuse,  had  no  support  but  in  the 
king.  Scoffers  also  abounded  ;  but  they  did  not  care  to 
restrain  arbitrary  power,  or  remove  the  abuses  which 
they  satirized.  One  universal  scepticism  questioned 
the  creed  of  churches  and  the  code  of  feudal  law,  the 
authority  of  the  hierarchy  and  the  sanctity  of  mon- 
archy ;  but  unbelief  had  neither  the  capacity  nor  the 
wish  to  organize  a  new  civilization.  The  philosophy 
of  the  day  could  not  guide  a  revolution,  for  it  pro- 
fessed to  receive  no  truth  but  through  the  senses, 
denied  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  and  de- 
rided the  possibility  of  disinterested  goodness.  As 
there  was  no  practical  school  of  politics  in  which  ex- 
perience might  train  statesmen  to  test  new  projects, 
the  passion  for  elementary  theories  had  no  moderat- 
ing counterpoise ;  and  the  authors  of  ameliorating 
plans  favored  the  unity  of  administration,  that  one 
indisputable  word  might  abolish  the  complicated 
VOL.  vn.  3* 


30  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  usages  and  laws  which  had  been  the  deposits  of  many 
— ^>  conquests,  or  the  growth  of  ages,  and  found  a  uniform 
May4'  system  on  principles  of  human  reason. 

At  this  time  the  central  power,  in  the  hands  of  a 
monarch  infamous  by  his  enslavement  to  pleasure, 
had  become  hideously  selfish  and  immoral ;  palsied 
and  depraved ;  swallowing  up  all  other  authority, 
and  yet  unconscious  of  the  attendant  radical  change 
in  the  feudal  constitution  ;  dreaming  itself  absolute, 
yet  wanting  personal  respectability ;  confessing  the 
necessity  of  administrative  reforms,  which  it  was  yet 
unable  to  direct.  For  great  ends  it  was  helpless, 
though  it  was  able  to  torture  and  distress  the  feeble  ; 
to  fill  the  criminal  code  with  the  barbarisms  of  arro- 
gant cruelty  ;  to  reserve  for  exceptional  courts  every 
accusation  against  even  the  humblest  of  its  agents ; 
to  judge  by  special  tribunals  questions  involving  life 
and  fortune  ;  to  issue  arbitrary  warrants  of  imprison- 
ment ;  to  punish  without  information  or  sentence ; 
making  itself  the  more  hateful  the  less  it  was  re- 
.  strained. 

The  duty  and  honor  of  the  kingdom  were  sacri- 
ficed in  its  foreign  policy.  Louis  the  Fifteenth  was  a 
tranquil  spectator  of  the  division  of  Poland,  and 
courted  the  friendship  of  George  the  Third  of  Eng- 
land, not  to  efface  the  false  notion  of  international 
enmity  which  was  a  brand  on  the  civilization  of  that 
age,  but  to  gain  a  new  support  for  monarchical  power. 
For  this  end  the  humiliations  of  the  last  war  would 
have  been  forgiven  by  the  monarch,  had  not  the 
heart  of  the  nation  still  palpitated  with  resentment. 
Under  the  supremacy  of  the  king's  mistress  sensual 
pleasure  ruled  the  court ;  dictated  the  appointment 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAY,    ]  774.  3] 

of  ministers ;  confused  the  administration ;  multiplied  CHAP. 
the  griefs  of  the  overburdened  peasantry  ;  and  would 
have  irretrievably  degraded  France,  but  for  its  third 
estate,  who  were  always  rising  in  importance,  ready 
to  lift  their  head  and  assert  their  power,  whenever  in 
any  part  of  the  world  a  happier  people  should  give 
them  an  example. 

The  heir  to  the  throne  of  France  was  not  ad- 
mitted to  the  royal  council,  and  grew  up  ignorant  of 
business  and  inert.  The  dauphiness  Marie  Antoi- 
nette, in  the  splendor  of  supreme  rank,  preserved 
the  gay  cheerfulness  of  youth.  She  was  conscious  of 
being  lovely,  and  was  willing  to  be  admired  ;  but  she 
knew  how  to  temper  graceful  condescension  with 
august  severity.  Impatient  of  the  stateliness  of  eti- 
quette, which  controlled  her  choice  of  companions 
even  more  than  the  disposition  of  her  hours,  she 
broke  away  from  wearisome  formalities  with  the 
eager  vivacity  of  self-will;  and  was  happiest  when 
she  could  forget  that  she  was  a  princess  and  be  her- 
self. From  the  same  quickness  of  nature,  she  readily 
took  part  in  any  prevailing  public  excitement,  regard- 
less of  reasons  of  state  or  the  decorum  of  the  palace. 
Unless  her  pride  was  incensed,  she  was  merciful ;  and 
she  delighted  in  bestowing  gifts ;  but  her  benevo- 
lence was  chiefly  the  indulgence  of  a  capricious 
humor,  which  never  attracted  the  affection  of  the 
poor.  Faithful  in  her  devotedness  to  the  nobles, 
she  knew  not  the  utter  decay  of  their  order;  and 
had  no  other  thought  than  that  the  traditions  of  cen- 
turies bound  them  to  defend  her  life  and  name.  But 
the  rugged  days  of  feudalism  were  gone  by ;  and  its 
frivolous  descendants  were  more  ready  to  draw  their 


32  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  swords  for  precedence  in  a  dance  at  court,  than  to 
— r^  protect  the  honor  of  their  future  queen.  From  her 
arriyal  m  France,  Marie  Antoinette  was  hated  by  the 
opponents  of  the  Austrian  alliance ;  and  even  while 
she  was  receiving  the  homage  of  the  court  during  her 
first  years  at  Versailles,  a  faction  in  the  highest  ranks 
calumniated  her  artless  impulsiveness  as  the  evidence 
of  crime. 

On  this  scene  of  a  degenerate  nobility  and  popu- 
lar distress  ;  of  administrative  corruptness  and  ruined 
finances ;  of  a  brave  but  luxurious  army  and  a  slothful 
navy ;  of  royal  authority,  unbounded,  unquestioned, 
and  yet  despised  ;  of  rising  deference  to  public  opin- 
ion in  a  nation  thoroughly  united  and  true  to  its 
nationality,  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  while  not  yet  twenty 
years  old,  entered  as  king.  When,  on  the  tenth  of 
May,  1YY4,  he  and  the  still  younger  Marie  Antoi- 
nette were  told  that  his  grandfather  was  no  more, 
they  threw  themselves  on  their  knees,  crying,  "  We 
are  too  young  to  reign ; "  and  prayed  God  to  direct 
their  inexperience.  The  city  of  Paris  was  delirious 
with  joy  at  their  accession.  "  It  is  our  paramount 
wish  to  make  our  people  happy,"  was  the  language  of 
the  first  edict  of  the  new  absolute  prince.  "  He 
excels  in  writing  prose,"  said  Voltaire,  on  reading  the 
words  of  promise ;  "  he  seems  inspired  by  Marcus 
Aurelius;  he  desires  what  is  good  and  does  it. 
Happy  they,  who,  like  him,  are  but  twenty  years  old, 
and  will  long  enjoy  the  sweets  of  his  reign."  Caron 
de  Beaumarchais,  the  sparkling  dramatist  and  restless 
plebeian  adventurer,  made  haste  to  solicit  the  royal 
patronage  of  his  genius  for  intrigue.  "  Is  there,"  said 
he  through  De  Sartine,  the  head  of  the  police,  "  any 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN     AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAT,    1774.  33 

tiling  which  the  king  wishes  to  know  alone  and  at  CHAP. 
once,  any  thing  which  he  wishes  done  quickly  and  % — ^ 
secretly,  here  am  I,  who  have  at  his  service  a  head, 
a  heart,  arms,  and  no  tongue." 

The  young  monarch,  with  all  his  zeal  for  adminis- 
trative improvements,  had  no  revolutionary  tenden- 
cies, and  held,  like  his  predecessor,  that  the  king 
alone  should  reign ;  yet  his  state  papers  were  soon 
to  cite  reverently  the  law  of  nature  and  the  rights 
of  man ;  and  the  will  of  the  people,  shrouded  in 
majesty,  was  to  walk  its  rounds  in  the  palace  invisi- 
ble, yet  supreme. 

The  sovereign  of  Spain,  on  wishing  his  kinsman 
joy  of  his  accession,  reminded  him,  as  the  head  of  the 
Bourbons,  of  their  double  relationship  by  his  mother's 
side,  as  well  as  his  father's ;  and  expressed  the  wish 
for  "  their  closest  union  and  most  perfect  harmony ; " 
for,  said  he,  "the  family  compact  guarantees  the 
prosperity  and  glory  of  our  House."  At  that  time, 
the  Catholic  king  was  fully  employed  in  personally 
regulating  his  finances,  and  in  preparations  to  chastise 
the  pirates  of  Algiers,  as  well  as  to  extort  from  Por- 
tugal a  renunciation  of  its  claims  to  extend  the  bound- 
aries of  Brazil.  The  sovereign  of  France  was  engrossed 
by  the  pressing  anxieties  attending  the  dismissal  of  an 
odious  ministry,  and  the  inauguration  of  domestic  re- 
form ;  so  that  neither  of  the  princes  seemed  at  leisure 
to  foment  troubles  in  North  America. 

Yet,  next  to  Du  Barry  and  her  party,  there  was 
no  such  sincere  mourner  for  Louis  the  Fifteenth  as 
George  the  Third.  The  continuance  of  the  cordial 
understanding  between  the  two  crowns  would  depend 
upon  the  persons  in  whom  the  young  king  should 


34  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  place  his  confidence.  To  conciliate  his  good  will,  the 
— ^— -  London  Court  Gazette  announced  him  as  "  king  of 
France,"  though  English  official  language  had  here- 
tofore spoken  only  of  "the  French  king,"  and  the 
Herald's  office  still  knew  no  other  king  of  France 
than  the  head  of  the  House  of  Hanover. 

At  the  same  time  the  British  ministers,  always 
jealous  of  the  Bourbons,  kept  spies  to  guess  at  their 
secrets ;  to  hearken  after  the  significant  whispers  of 
their  ministers ;  to  bribe  workmen  in  their  navy 
yards  for  a  report  of  every  keel  that  was  laid,  every 
new  armament  or  re  enforcement  to  the  usual  fleets. 
Doubting  the  French  assurances  of  a  wish  to  see  the 
troubles  in  America  quieted,  they  resolved  to  force 
the  American  struggle  to  an  immediate  issue,  hoping 
not  only  to  insulate  Massachusetts,  but  even  to  con- 
fine the  contest  to  its  capital. 

On  the  day  of  the  accession  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth, 
the  act  closing  the  port  of  Boston,  transferring  the 
board  of  customs  to  Marblehead,  and  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment to  Salem,  reached  the  devoted  town.  The  king 
was  confident  that  the  slow  torture  which  was  to  be 
applied,  would  constrain  its  inhabitants  to  cry  out  for 
mercy  and  promise  unconditional  obedience.  Success 
in  resistance  could  come  only  from  an  American  union, 
which  was  not  to  be  hoped  for,  unless  Boston  should 
offer  herself  as  a  willing  sacrifice.  The  mechanics 
and  merchants  and  Iaborers3  altogether  scarcely  so 
many  as  thirty-five  hundred  able-bodied  men,  knew 
that  they  were  acting,  not  for  the  liberty  of  a  province 
or  of  America,  but  for  freedom  itself.  They  were 
inspired  by  the  thought  that  the  Providence  which 
rules  the  world  demanded  of  them  heroic  self-denial, 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAY,    1774.  35 

as  the  champions  of  humanity.     The  country  never  CHAP. 
doubted  their  perseverance,  and  they  trusted  the  fel- 
low-feeling  of  the  continent. 

As  soon  as  the  act  was  received,  the  Boston  com- 
mittee of  correspondence,  by  the  hand  of  Joseph 
Warren,  invited  eight  neighboring  towns  to  a  con- 
ference "  on  the  critical  state  of  public  affairs."  On 
the  twelfth,  at  noon,  Metcalf  Bowler,  the  speaker  of 
the  assembly  of  Bhode  Island,  came  before  them 
with  the  cheering  news,  that,  in  answer  to  a  Decent 
circular  letter  from  the  body  over  which  he  presided, 
all  the  thirteen  governments  were  pledged  to  union. 
Punctually,  at  the  hour  of  three  in  the  afternoon  of 
that  day,  the  committees  .of  Dorchester,  Roxbury, 
Brookline,  Newton,  Cambridge,  Charlestown,  Lynn, 
and  Lexington,  joined  them  in  Faneuil  Hall,  the  cra- 
dle of  American  liberty,  where  for  ten  years  the 
freemen  of  the  town  had  debated  the  great  question 
of  justifiable  resistance.  The  lowly  men  who  now 
met  there  were  most  of  them  accustomed  to  feed  their 
own  cattle ;  to  fold  their  own  sheep ;  to  guide  their 
own  plough ;  all  trained  to  public  life  in  the  little 
democracies  of  their  towns  ;  some  of  them  captains  in 
the  militia  and  officers  of  the  church  according  to 'the 
discipline  of  Congregationalists ;  nearly  all  of  them 
communicants,  under  a  public  covenant  with  God. 
They  grew  in  greatness  as  their  sphere  enlarged. 
Their  virtues  burst  the  confines  of  village  life.  They 
felt  themselves  to  be  citizens  not  of  little  municipali- 
ties, but  of  the  whole  world  of  mankind.  In  their 
dark  hour  light  broke  upon  them  from  their  own 
truth  and  courage.  Placing  Samuel  Adams  at  their 
head,  and  guided  by  a  report  prepared  by  Joseph 


36  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  Warren  of  Boston,  Gardner  of  Cambridge,  and  others, 
^- —  they  agreed  unanimously  on  the  injustice  and  cruelty 
*May  *  of  the  act,  by  which  parliament,  without  competent 
jurisdiction,  and  contrary  as  well  to  natural  right  as 
to  the  laws  of  all  civilized  states,  had,  without  a  hear- 
ing, set  apart,  accused,  tried,  and  condemned  the  town 
of  Boston.  The  delegates  from  the  eight  villages 
were  reminded  by  those  of  Boston,  that  that  port 
could  recover  its  trade  by  paying  for  the  tea  which 
had  been  thrown  overboard ;  but  they  held  it  unwor- 
thy even  to  notice  the  humiliating  offer,  promising  on 
their  part  to  join  "  their  suffering  brethren  in  every 
measure  of  relief." 

To  make  a  general  union  possible,  self-restraint 
must  regulate  courage.  The  meeting  knew  that  a 
declaration  of  independence  would  have  alienated 
their  sister  colonies,  and  thus  far  they  had  not  dis- 
covered that  independence  was  really  the  desire  of 
their  own  hearts.  To  suggest  nothing  till  a  congress 
could  be  convened,  would  have  seemed  to  them  like 
*  abandoning  the  town  to  bleed  away  its  life  without 
relief  or  solace.  The  king  had  expected  to  starve  its 
people  into  submission ;  in  their  circular  letter  to  the 
committees  of  the  other  colonies,  they  proposed  as 
a  counter  action  a  general  cessation  of  trade  with 
Britain.  "  Now,"  they  added,  "  is  the  time  when  all 
should  be  united  in  opposition  to  this  violation  of  the 
,  liberties  of  all.  The  single  question  is,  whether  you 
consider  Boston  as  suffering  in  the  common  cause,  and 
sensibly  feel  and  resent  the  injury  and  affront  offered 
to  her  ?  We  cannot  believe  otherwise  ;  assuring  you 
that,  not  in  the  least  intimidated  by  this  inhuman 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAY,    1774.  37 

treatment,  we  are  still  determined  to  maintain  to  the  CHAP. 
utmost  of  our  abilities  the  rights  of  America." 

The  next  day,  while  Gage  was  sailing  into  the 
harbor  with  the  vice-regal  powers  of  commander-in- 
chief  for  the  continent,  as  well  as  the  civil  authority 
of  governor  in  the  province,  Samuel  Adams  pre- 
sided over  a  very  numerous  town  meeting,  which  was 
attended  by  many  that  had  hitherto  kept  aloof. 
The  thought  of  republican  Rome,  in  its  purest  age, 
animated  their  consultations.  The  port-act  was 
read,  and  in  bold  debate  was  pronounced  repugnant 
to  law,  religion,  and  common  sense.  At  the  same 
time,  those  who,  from  loss  of  employment,  were  to  be 
the  first  to  encounter  want,  were  remembered  with 
tender  compassion,  and  measures  were  put  in  train 
for  their  relief.  Then  the  inhabitants,  by  the  hand 
of  Samuel  Adams,  made  their  touching  appeal "  to  all 
the  sister  colonies,  promising  to  suffer  for  America 
with  a  becoming  fortitude,  confessing  that  singly  they 
might  find  their  trial  too  severe,  and  entreating  not 
to  be  left  to  struggle  alone,  when  the  very  being  of 
every  colony,  considered  as  a  free  people,  depended 
upon  the  event." 

On  the  seventeenth  of  May,  Gage,  who  had  re- 
mained four  days  with  Hutchinson  at  Castle  William, 
landed  at  Long  Wharf  amidst  salutes  from  ships  and 
batteries.  Received  by  the  counci]  and  civil  officers, 
he  was  escorted  by  the  Boston  Cadets,  under  Han- 
cock, to  the  State  House,  where  the  council  presented 
a  loyal  address,  and  his  commission  was  proclaimed 
with  three  volleys  of  musketry  and  as  many  cheers. 
He  then  partook  of  a  public  dinner  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
A  hope  still  lingered  that  relief  might  come  through 

VOL.    VII.  4 


38  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  his  intercession.  But  Gage  was  neither  fit  to  recon- 
^— -  cile  nor  to  subdue.  By  his  mild  temper  and  love  of 
society,  ne  gained  the  good -will  of  his  boon  com- 
panions, and  escaped  personal  enmities ;  but  in  earnest 
business  he  inspired  neither  confidence  nor  fear. 
Though  his  disposition  was  far  from  being  malignant, 
he  was  so  poor  in  spirit  and  so  weak  of  will,  so  dull 
in  his  perceptions  and  so  unsettled  in  his  opinions, 
that  he  was  sure  to  follow  the  worst  advice,  and 
vacillate  between  smooth  words  of  concession  and 
merciless  severity.  He  had  promised  the  king  that 
with  four  regiments  he  would  play  the  "  lion,"  and 
troops  beyond  his  requisition  were  hourly  expected. 
His  instructions  enjoined  upon  him  the  seizure  and 
condign  punishment  of  Samuel  Adams,  Hancock, 
Joseph  Warren,  and  other  leading-  patriots ;  but  he 
stood  in  such  dread  of  them  that  he  never  so  much  as 
attempted  their  arrest. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  were  almost  exclu- 
sively of  English  origin ;  beyond  any  other  colony, 
they  loved  the  land  of  their  ancestors ;  but  their  fond 
attachment  made  them  only  the  more  sensitive  to  its 
tyranny.  To  subject  them  to  taxation  without  their 
consent,  was  robbing  them  of  their  birthright ;  they 
scorned  the  British  parliament  as  "  a  junto  of  the  ser- 
vants of  the  crown,  rather  than  the  representatives  of 
England."  Not  disguising  to  themselves  their  danger, 
but  confident  of  victory,  they  were  resolved  to  stand 
together  as  brothers  for  a  life  of  liberty. 

The  merchants  of  Newburyport  were  the  first 
who  agreed  to  suspend  all  commerce  with  Britain 
and  Ireland.  Salem,  also,  the  place  marked  out  as  the 
new  seat  of  government,  in  a  very  full  town  meeting, 


AMERICA,    BRITAIN,    AND    FRANCE,    IN    MAY,    1774.  39 

and  after  imimpassioned  debates,  decided  almost  CHAP. 
unanimously  to  stop  trade  not  with  Britain  only,  but  — X- 
even  with  the  West  Indies.  If  in  Boston  a  few  era- 
vens  proposed  to  purchase  a  relaxation  of  the  block- 
ade by  quailing  before  power,  the  majority  were  beset 
by  no  temptation  so  strong  as  that  of  routing  at  once 
the  insignificant  number  of  troops  who  had  come  to 
overawe  them.  But  Samuel  Adams,  while  he  com- 
pared their  spirit  to  that  of  Sparta  or  Home,  was  ever 
inculcating  "  patience  as  the  characteristic  of  a  pa- 
triot," and  the  people,  having  sent  forth  their  cry  to 
the  continent,  waited  self-possessed  for  voices  of  con- 
solation. 


CHAPTER  II. 

NEW  YORK  PROPOSES  A  GENERAL  CONGRESS 

MAY,  1774. 

CHAP.  NEW  YOEK  anticipated  the  prayer  of  Boston.  Its 
— • — •  people,  who  had  received  the  port-act  directly  from 
lMay.  England,  felt  the  wrong  to  that  town,  as  a  wound  to 
themselves,  and  even  the  lukewarm  kindled  with 
resentment.  From  the  epoch  of  the  stamp-act,  their 
Sons  of  Liberty,  styled  by  the  royalists  "  the  Presby- 
terian junto,"  had  kept  up  a  committee  of  corre- 
spondence. Yet  Sears,  Macdougall,  and  Lamb,  still 
its  principal  members,  represented  the  sympathies  of 
the  mechanics  of  the  city,  more  than  of  the  mer- 
chants ;  and  they  never  enjoyed  the  full  confidence 
of  the  great  landed  proprietors  who,  by  the  tenure 
of  estates  throughout  New  York,  formed  a  recognised 
aristocracy.  To  unite  the  whole  province  on  the  side 
of  liberty,  a  more  comprehensive  combination  was, 
therefore,  required.  The  old  committee  advocated 
the  questionable  policy  of  an  immediate  suspension  of 
commerce  with  Britain ;  but  they  also  proposed — and 
they  were  the  first  to  propose — "  a  general  congress." 


NEW   YORK   PROPOSES    A   GENERAL    CONGRESS.  41 

These  recommendations  they  forwarded  through  Con-  CHAP. 
necticut  to  Boston,  with  entreaties  to  that  town  to  ^v^ 
stand  firm  ;  and  in  full  confidence  of  approval,  they 
applied  not  to  New  England  only,  but  to  Philadel- 
phia, and  through  Philadelphia  to  every  colony  at 
the  South. 

Such  was  the  inception  of  the  continental  con- 
gress of  1774.  It  was  the  last  achievement  of  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  of  New  York.  Their  words  of 
cheering  to  Boston,  and  their  summons  to  the  coun- 
try, had  already  gone  forth,  when,  on  the  evening  of 
the  sixteenth  of  May,  they  convoked  the  inhabitants 
of  their  city.  A  sense  of  the  impending  change  per- 
vaded the  meeting  and  tempered  passionate  rashness. 
Some  who  were  in  a  secret  understanding  with  officers 
of  the  crown,  sought  to  evade  all  decisive  measures  ; 
the  merchants  were  averse  to  headlong  engagements 
for  suspending  trade ;  the  gentry  feared,  lest  the  men, 
who  on  all  former  occasions  had  led  the  multitude, 
should  preserve  the  control  in  the  day,  which  was 
felt  to  be  near  at  hand,  when  an  independent  people 
would  shape  the  permanent  institutions  of  a  conti- 
nent. Under  a  conservative  influence,  the  motion 
prevailed  to  supersede  the  old  committee  of  corre- 
spondence by  a  new  one  of  fifty,  and  its  members 
were  selected  by  open  nomination.  The  choice  in- 
cluded men  from  all  classes.  Nearly  a  third  part 
were  of  those  who  followed  the  British  standard  to 
the  last ;  others  were  lukewarm,  unsteady,  and  blind 
to  the  nearness  of  revolution ;  others  again  were  en- 
thusiastic Sons  of  Liberty.  The  friends  to  govern- 
ment claimed  that  the  majority  was  inflexibly  loyal ; 
the  control  fell  into  the  hands  of  men  who,  like  John 

VOL.  VII.  4* 


42  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  Jay,  still  aimed  at  reconciling  a  continued  dependence 
^-^  on  England  with  the  just  freedom  of  the  colonies. 

Meantime,  the  port-act  was  circulated  with  in- 
credible rapidity.  In  some  places  it  was  printed 
upon  mourning  paper  with  a  black  border,  and  cried 
about  the  streets  as  a  barbarous  murder ;  in  others, 
it  was  burned  with  great  solemnity  in  the  presence 
of  vast  bodies  of  the  people.  On  the  seventeenth 
the  representatives  of  Connecticut,  with  clear  percep- 
tions and  firm  courage,  made  a  declaration  of  rights. 
"  Let  us  play  the  man,"  said  they,  "  for  the  cause  of 
our  country  ;  and  trust  the  event  to  Him  who  orders 
all  events  for  the  best  good  of  His  people."  On  the 
same  day,  the  freemen  of  the  town  of  Providence, 
unsolicited  from  abroad,  and  after  full  discussion, 
voted  to  promote  "  a  congress  of  the  representatives 
of  all  the  North  American  colonies."  Declaring 
"  personal  liberty  an  essential  part  of  the  natural 
rights  of  mankind,"  they  also  expressed  the  wish  to 
prohibit  the  importation  of  negro  slaves,  and  to  set 
free  all  negroes  born  in  the  colony. 

Two  days  after  these  spontaneous  movements,  the 
people  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York  assem- 
bled to  inaugurate  their  new  committee  with  the 
formality  of  public  approval.  Two  parties  appeared 
in  array ;  on  the  one  side  men  of  property,  on  the 
other  tradesmen  and  mechanics.  Foreboding  a  revo- 
lution, they  seemed  to  contend  in  advance,  whether 
their  future  government  should  be  formed  upon  the 
basis  of  property,  or  on  purely  popular  principles. 
It  was  plain  that  knowledge  had  penetrated  the 
mass  of  the  people,  who  were  growing  accustomed 
to  reason  for  themselves,  and  were  ready  to  found  a 


NEW   YORK    PROPOSES    A    GENERAL    CONGRESS.  43 

new  social  order  in  which  they  would  rule.  But  on  CHAP. 
that  day  they  chose  to  follow  the  wealthier  class,  if  v — r*-> 
it  would  but  make  with  them  a  common  cause  ;  and  M74' 

May. 

the  nomination  of  the  committee  was  accepted,  even 
with  the  addition  of  Isaac  Low  as  its  chairman,  who 
was  more  of  a  loyalist  than  a  patriot. 

The  letter  from  the  New  York  Sons  of  Liberty 
had  been  received  in  Philadelphia ;  and  when  on  the 
nineteenth  the  messenger  from  Boston  arrived  with 
despatches,  he  found  Charles  Thomson,  Thomas  Mif- 
flin,  Joseph  Reed  and  others,  ready  to  call  a  public 
meeting  on  the  evening  of  the  next  day. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twentieth,  the  king  gave 
in  person  his  assent  to  the  act  which  made  the  British 
commander-in-chief  in  America,  his  army,  and  the 
civil  officers,  no  longer  amenable  to  American  courts 
of  justice ;  and  also  to  that  which  mutilated  the 
charter  of  Massachusetts,  and  .destroyed  the  freedom 
of  its  town  meetings.  "  The  law,"  said  Garnier,  the 
French  minister,  "  must  either  lead  to  the  complete 
reduction  of  the  colonies,  or  clear  the  way  for  their 
independence."  "  I  wish  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart,"  said  the  duke  of  Richmond,  during  a  debate 
in  the  house  of  lords,  "  that  the  Americans  may  resist, 
and  get  the  better  of  the  forces  sent  against  them." 

While  the  British  parliament  was  conferring  on 
Gage  power  to  take  the  lives  of  Bostonians  with 
impunity,  the  men  of  Philadelphia  were  asking  each 
other,  if  there  remained  a  hope  that  the  danger  would 
pass  by.  The  Presbyterians,  true  to  their  traditions, 
held  it  right  to  war  against  tyranny  ;  the  merchants 
refused  to  sacrifice  their  trade ;  the  Quakers  in  any 
event  scrupled  to  use  arms ;  a  numerous  class,  like 


44  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  Reed,  cherished  the  most  passionate  desire  for  a 
^^  reconciliation  with  the  mother  country.  In  the 
chaos  of  opinion,  the  cause  of  liberty  needed  wise 
and  intrepid  counsellors ;  but  during  the  absence  of 
Franklin,  Pennsylvania  fell  under  the  influence  of 
Dickinson.  His  claims  to  public  respect  were  indis- 
putable. He  was  honored  for  spotless  morals,  elo- 
quence, and  good  service  in  the  colonial  legislature 
his  writings  had  endeared  him  to  America  as  a  sin- 
cere friend  of  liberty.  Possessed  of  an  ample  fortune, 
it  was  his  pride  to  call  himself  a  "  farmer."  Residing 
at  a  country  seat  which  overlooked  Philadelphia  and 
the  Delaware  river,  he  delighted  in  study  and  repose, 
and  was  wanting  in  active  vigor  of  will.  Free  from 
personal  cowardice,  his  shrinking  sensitiveness  bor- 
dered on  pusillanimity.  "  He  had  an  excellent  heart, 
and  the  cause  of  his  country  lay  near  it ; "  "  he 
loved  the  people  of  Boston  with  the  tenderness  of  a 
brother;"  yet  he  was  more  jealous  of  their  zeal  than 
touched  by  their  sorrows.  "They  will  have  time 
enough  to  die,"  were  his  words  on  that  morning. 
"  Let  them  give  the  other  provinces  opportunity  to 
think  and  resolve.  If  they  expect  to  drag  them  by 
their  own  violence  into  mad  measures,  they  will  be 
left  to  perish  by  themselves,  despised  by  their  ene- 
mies, and  almost  detested  by  their  friends."  Having 
matured  his  scheme  in  the  solitude  of  his  retreat,  he 
received  at  dinner  Thomson,  Mifflin,  and  Reed  ;  who, 
for  the  sake  of  his  public  cooperation,  acquiesced  in 
his  delays. 

In  the  evening,  about  three  hundred  of  the  prin- 
cipal citizens  of  Philadelphia  assembled  in  the  Long 
Room  of  the  City  Tavern.  The  letter  from  the  Sons 


NEW   YORK    PROPOSES    A    GENERAL    CONGRESS.  45 

of  Liberty  of  New  York  was  read  aloud,  as  well  CHAP. 
as  the  letters  from  Boston.  Two  measures  were  ' — ^ 
thus  brought  under  discussion ;  that  of  New  York  J 
for  a  congress ;  that  of  Boston  for  an  immediate  ces- 
sation of  trade.  The  latter  proposition  was  received 
with  loud  and  general  murmurs.  Dickinson  con- 
ciliated the  wavering  merchants  by  expressing  him- 
self strongly  against  it ;  but  he  was  heard  with  ap- 
plause as  he  spoke  for  a  general  congress.  He  in- 
sisted, however,  on  a  preliminary  petition  to  his  friend, 
John  Penn,  the  proprietary  governor,  to  call  together 
the  legislature  of  the  colony.  This  request  every 
one  knew  would  be  refused.  But  then,  reasoned 
Mifflin  and  the  ardent  politicians,  a  committee  of  cor- 
respondence, after  the  model  of  Boston,  must,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  refusal,  be  named  for  the  several 
counties  in  the  province.  Delegates  will  thus  be 
appointed  to  a  general  congress,  "  and  when  the 
colonies  are  once  united  in  councils,  what  may  they 
not  effect?"  At  an  early  hour  Dickinson  retired 
from  the  meeting,  of  which  the  spirit  far  exceeded 
his  own;  but  even  the  most  zealous  acknowledged 
the  necessity  of  deferring  to  his  advice.  Accepting, 
therefore,  moderation  and  prudence  as  their  watch- 
words, they  did  little  more  than  coldly  resolve,  that 
Boston  was  suffering  in  the  general  cause,  and  they 
appointed  a  committee  of  intercolonial  correspond- 
ence, with  Dickinson  as  its  chief. 

On  the  next  day,  Dickinson,  with  calculating- 
reserve,  embodied  in  a  letter  to  Boston  the  system 
which,  for  the  coming  year,  was  to  form  the  policy  of 
America.  It  proposed  a  general  congress  of  deputies 
from  the  different  colonies,  who,  in  firm  but  dutiful 


46  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  terms,  should  make  to  the  king  a  petition  of  their 
N— ^  rights.  This,  he  was  confident,  would  be  granted 
through  the  influence  of  the  wise  and  good  in  the 
mother  country ;  and  the  most  sanguine  of  his  sup- 
porters predicted  that  the  very  idea  of  a  general 
congress  would  compel  a  change  of  policy. 

In  like  manner  the  fifty-one  who  now  represented 
the  city  and  county  of  New  York,  adopted  from  their 
predecessors  the  plan  of  a  continental  congress,  and 
to  that  body  they  referred  all  questions  relating  to 
commerce ;  thus  postponing  the  proposal  for  an  imme- 
diate suspension  of  trade,  but  committing  themselves 
irrevocably  to  union  and  resistance.  At  the  same 
time  they  invited  every  county  in  the  colony  to  make 
choice  of  a  committee. 

The  messenger,  on  his  return  with  the  letters 
from  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  found  the  people 
of  Connecticut  anxious  for  a  congress,  even  if  it 
should  not  at  once  embrace  the  colonies  south  of  the 
Potomac ;  and  their  committee  wisely  entreated  Mas- 
sachusetts to  fix  the  place  and  time  for  its  meeting. 

At  Boston,  the  agents  and  supporters  of  the 
British  ministers  strove  to  bend  the  firmness  of  its 
people  by  holding  up  to  the  tradesmen  the  grim  pic- 
ture of  misery  and  want,  while  Hutchinson  promised 
to  obtain  in  England  a  restoration  of  trade  if  the 
town  would  but  pay  the  first  cost  of  the  tea.  Before 
his  departure,  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  mer- 
chants and  others  of  Boston  clandestinely  addressed 
him,  "  lamenting  the  loss  of  so  good  a  governor,"  con- 
fessing the  propriety  of  indemnifying  the  East  India 
company,  and  appealing  to  his  most  benevolent  dis- 
position to  procure  by  his  representations  some 


NEW  YORK  PROPOSES  A  GENERAL  CONGRESS.         47 

speedy  relief;  but  at  a  full  meeting  of  merchants  and  CHAP. 
traders  the  address  was  disclaimed.  Thirty-three  — *~~ 
citizens  of  Marblehead,  who  signed  a  similar  paper, 
brought  upon  themselves  the  public  reprobation  of 
their  townsmen.  Hutchinson  had  merited  in  civil 
cases  the  praise  of  an  impartial  judge ;  twenty-four 
lawyers,  including  judges  of  admiralty  and  attorneys 
of  the  crown,  subscribed  an  extravagant  panegyric 
of  his  general  character  and  conduct ;  but  those  who, 
for  learning  and  integrity,  most  adorned  their  profes- 
sion, withheld  their  names. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  necessity  of  a  response  to 
the  courage  of  the  people,  the  hearty  adhesion  of  the 
town  of  Providence,  and  the  cheering  letter  from  the 
old  committee  of  New  York,  animated  a  majority  of 
the  merchants  of  Boston,  and  through  their  example 
those  of  the  province,  to  an  engagement  to  cease  all 
importations  from  England.  Confidence  prevailed 
that  their  brethren,  at  least  as  far  south  as  Philadel- 
phia, would  embrace  the  same  mode  of  peaceful  re- 
sistance. The  letter  which  soon  arrived  from  that 
city,  and  which  required  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
to  retreat  from  their  advanced  position,  was  therefore 
received  with  impatience.  But  Samuel  Adams  sup- 
pressed all  murmurs.  "  I  am  fully  of  the  Farmer's 
sentiments,"  said  he ;  "  violence  and  submission  would 
at  this  time  be  equally  fatal ; "  but  he  exerted  him- 
self the  more  to  promote  the  immediate  suspension  of 
commerce. 

The  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  last 
Wednesday  of  May,  organized  the  government  for 
the  year  by  the  usual  election  of  councillors ;  of  these, 
the  governor  negatived  the  unparalleled  number  of 


48  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  thirteen,  among  them  James  Bowdoin,  Samuel  Dex- 
% — ^  ter,  William  Phillips,  and  John  Adams,  than  whom 
*•  the  province  could  not  show  purer  or  abler  men. 
The  desire  of  the  assembly  that  he  would  appoint  a 
fast  was  refused ;  "  for,"  said  he  to  Dartmouth,  "  the 
request  was  only  to  give  an  opportunity  for  sedition 
to  flow  from  the  pulpit."  On  Saturday,  the  twenty- 
eighth,  Samuel  Adams  was  on  the  point  of  proposing 
a  general  congress,  when  the  assembly  was  unexpect- 
edly prorogued,  to  meet  after  ten  days,  at  Salem. 

The  people  of  Boston,  then  the  most  flourishing 
commercial  town  on  the  continent,  never  regretted 
their  being  the  principal  object  of  ministerial  ven- 
geance. "  We  shall  suffer  in  a  good  cause,"  said  the 
thousands  who  depended  on  their  daily  labor  for 
bread ;  "  the  righteous  Being,  who  takes  care  of  the 
ravens  that  cry  unto  him,  will  provide  for  us  and 
ours." 


CHAPTER   III. 

VOICES   FROM   THE   SOUTH. 
MAY,  1774,  CONTINUED. 

HEARTS  glowed  more  warmly  on  the  banks  of  the  CHAP. 
Patapsco.  That  admirable  site  of  commerce,  whose  ^^^ 
river  side  and  hill-tops  are  now  covered  with  stately 
warehouses,  mansions  and  monuments,  whose  bay 
sparkles  round  the  prows  of  the  swiftest  barks, 
whose  wharfs  receive  to  their  natural  resting-place 
the  wealth  of  the  West  Indies  and  South  America, 
and  whose  happy  enterprise  sends  across  the  moun- 
tains its  iron  pathway  of  many  arms  to  reach  the  val- 
ley of  the  Mississippi,  had  for  a  century  been  tenanted 
only  by  straggling  cottages.  But  its  convenient 
proximity  to  the  border  counties  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia  had  at  length  been  observed  by  Scotch 
Irish  Presbyterians,  and  other  bold  and  industrious 
men ;  and  within  a  few  years  they  had  created  the 
town  of  Baltimore,  which  already  was  the  chief  em- 
porium within  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  promised  to 
become  one  of  the  most  opulent  and  populous  cities 
of  the  world.  When  the  messages  from  the  old  com- 
VOL.  vn.  5 


50  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  mittee  of  New  York,  from  Philadelphia,  and  from 
— <^  Boston,  reached  its  inhabitants,  they  could  not  "  see 
*ke  leas^  grounds  for  expecting  relief  from  a  petition 
and  remonstrance."  They  called  to  mind  the  con- 
tempt with  which  for  ten  years  their  petitions  had 
been  thrust  aside,  and  were  "convinced  that  some- 
thing more  sensible  than  supplications  would  best 
serve  their  purpose." 

After  consultation  with  the  men  of  Annapolis,  to 
whom  the  coolness  of  the  Philadelphians  seemed  like 
insulting  pity,  and  who  promptly  resolved  to  stop 
all  trade  with  Great  Britain,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city  and  county  of  Baltimore  advocated  suspending 
commerce  with  Great  Britain  and  the  West  Indies, 
chose  deputies  to  a  colonial  convention,  recommended 
a  continental  congress,  appointed  a  numerous  com- 
mittee of  correspondence,  and  sent  cheering  words 
to  their  "  friends  "  at  Boston,  as  sufferers  in  the  com- 
mon cause.  "  The  Supreme  Disposer  of  all  events," 
said  they,  "will  terminate  this  severe  trial  of  your 
patience  in  a  happy  confirmation  of  American  free- 
dom." For  this  spirited  conduct  Baltimore  was  ap- 
plauded as  the  model ;  and  its  example  kindled  new 
life  in  New  York. 

On  the  twenty-eighth,  the  assembly  of  New 
Hampshire,  though  still  desiring  to  promote  harmony 
with  the  parent  land,  began  its  organization  for  resist- 
ing encroachments  on  American  rights. 

Three  days  later  the  people  of  New  Jersey  de- 
clared for  a  suspension  of  trade  and  a  congress,  and 
claimed  "to  be  fellow-sufferers  with  Boston  in  the 
cause  of  liberty." 

On  South  Carolina  the  restrictive  laws  had  never 


VOICES    FROM    THE    SOUTH.  51 

pressed  with  severity.  They  had  been  beneficially  CHAP. 
modified  in  favor  of  its  great  staple,  rice ;  and  the  ' — ^ 
character  of  the  laborers  on  its  soil  forbade  all 
thought  of  rivalling  British  skill  in  manufactures. 
Its  wealthy  inhabitants,  shunning  the  occupations  of 
city  life,  loved  to  reside  in  hospitable  elegance  on 
their  large  and  productive  estates.  Its  annual  ex- 
ports to  the  northern  provinces  were  of  small  account, 
while  to  Great  Britain  they  exceeded  two  millions  of 
dollars  in  value.  Enriched  by  this  commerce,  its 
people  cherished  a  warm  affection  for  the  mother 
country,  and  delighted  in  sending  their  sons  "  home," 
as  England  was  called,  for  their  education.  The 
harbor  of  Charleston  was  almost  unguarded,  ex- 
cept by  the  sand-bar  at  its  entrance.  The  Creeks 
and  Cherokees  on  the  frontier,  against  whom  the 
English  government  had  once  been  solicited  by  South 
Carolina  herself  to  send  over  a  body  of  troops  as  a 
protection,  were  still  numerous  and  warlike.  The 
negro  slaves  who,  in  the  country  near  the  ocean  very 
far  outnumbered  all  the  free,  were  so  many  hostages 
for  the  allegiance  of  their  masters.  The  trade  of 
Charleston  was  in  the  hands  of  British  factors,  some 
of  whom  speculated  already  on  the  coming  con- 
fiscation of  the  rice  swamps  and  indigo  fields  of 
"  many  a  bonnie  rebel."  The  upland  country  was 
numerously  peopled  by  men  who  felt  no  grievances, 
and  were  blindly  devoted  to  the  king.  And  yet  the 
planters,  loving  their  civil  rights  more  than  security 
and  ease,  refused  to  take  counsel  of  their  interests  or 
their  danger.  "  Boston,"  said  they,  "  is  but  the  first 
victim  at  the  altar  of  tyranny."  Eeduced  to  the 
dilemma  either  to  consent  to  hold  their  liberties  only 


52  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  as  tenants  at  will  of  the  British  house  of  commons, 
* — r^  or  to  prepare  for  resistance,  their  choice  was  never  in 
doubt.  "  The  whole  continent,"  they  said,  "  must  be 
animated  with  one  great  soul,  and  all  Americans  must 
resolve  to  stand  by  one  another  even  unto  death. 
Should  they  fail,  the  constitution  of  the  mother  coun- 
try itself  would  lose  its  excellence."  They  knew  the 
imminent  ruin  which  they  risked ;  but  they  "  remem- 
bered that  the  happiness  of  many  generations  and 
many  millions  depended  on  their  spirit  and  con- 
stancy." 

The  burgesses  of  Virginia  sat  as  usual  in  May. 
The  extension  of  the  province  to  the  west  and  north- 
west was  their  great  ambition,  which  the  governor, 
greedy  of  large  masses  of  land,  and  of  fees  for  con- 
niving at  the  acquisitions  of  others,  selfishly  seconded, 
in  flagrant  disregard  of  his  instructions.  To  Lad}" 
Dunmore,  who  had  just  arrived,  the  assembly  voted 
a  congratulatory  address,  and  its  members  joined  to 
give  her  a  ball.  The  feeling  of  loyalty  was  still 
predominant ;  the  thought  of  revolution  was  not  har- 
bored ;  but  they  none  the  less  held  it  their  duty  to 
resist  the  systematic  plan  of  parliamentary  despotism , 
and  without  waiting  for  an  appeal  from  Boston,  they 
resolved  on  its  deliverance.  First  among  them  as  an 
orator  stood  Patrick  Henry,  whose  words  had  power 
to  kindle  in  his  hearers  passions  like  his  own.  But 
eloquence  was  his  least  merit ;  he  was  revered  as  the 
ideal  of  a  patriot  of  Rome  in  its  austerest  age.  The 
approach  of  danger  quickened  his  sagacity,  and  his 
language  gained  the  boldness  of  prophecy.  He  was 
borne  up  by  the  strong  support  of  Richard  Henry 
Lee  and  Washington.  It  chanced  that  George  Ma- 


VOICES    FROM    THE    SOUTH.  53 

son  also  was  then  at  Williamsburg,  a  man  of  strong  CHAP. 
and  true  affections ;  learned  in  constitutional  law ;  a  — ^— 
profound  reasoner ;  honest  and  fearless  in  council ; 
shunning  ambition  and  public  life,  from  desponding 
sorrow  at  the  death  of  his  wife,  for  whom  he  never 
ceased  to  mourn ;  but  earnestly  mindful  of  his  country 
as  became  one  whose  chastened  spirit  looked  beyond 
the  interests  of  the  moment.  After  deliberation  with 
these  associates,  Jefferson  prepared  the  measure  that 
was  to  declare  irrevocably  the  policy  of  Virginia ; 
and  its  house  of  burgesses,  on  the  twenty-fourth,  on 
motion  of  Robert  Carter  Nicholas,  adopted  the  con- 
certed resolution,  which  was  in  itself  a  solemn  invoca- 
tion of  God  as  the  witness  of  their  deliberate  purpose 
to  rescue  their  liberties  even  at  the  risk  of  being 
compelled  to  defend  them  with  arms.  It  recom- 
mended to  their  fellow-citizens  that  the  day  on  which 
the  Boston  port-act  was  to  take  effect  should  be  set 
apart  "as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  devoutly  to 
implore  the  Divine  interposition  for  averting  the 
dreadful  calamity  which  threatened  destruction  to 
their  civil  rights,  and  the  evils  of  a  civil  war ;  and 
to  give  to  the  American  people  one  heart  and  one 
mind  firmly  to  oppose  by  all  just  and  proper  means, 
every  injury  to  American  rights."  The  resolve,  which 
bound  only  the  members  themselves,  was  distributed 
by  express  through  their  respective  counties  as  a 
general  invitation  to  the  people.  Especially  Wash- 
ington sent  the  notice  to  his  constituents ;  and  Mason  % 
charged  his  little  household  of  sons  and  daughters  to 
keep  the  day  strictly,  and  attend  church  clad  in 
mourning. 

VOL.  vn.       5* 


54 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


CHAP.  On  the  morning  which  followed  the  adoption  of 
"•^v^  this  measure,  Dunmore  dissolved  the  House.  The 
burgesses  immediately  repaired  to  the  Ealeigh  tav- 
ern, about  one  hundred  paces  from  the  capitol,  and 
with  Peyton  Kandolph,  their  late  speaker,  in  the 
chair,  voted  that  the  attack  on  Massachusetts  was  an 
attack  on  all  the  colonies,  to  be  opposed  by  the 
united  wisdom  of  all.  In  conformity  with  this  decla- 
ration, they  advised  for  future  time  an  annual  con- 
tinental congress.  They  named  Peyton  Randolph, 
with  others,  a  committee  of  correspondence  to  invite 
a  general  concurrence  in  this  design.  As  yet  social 
relations  were  not  embittered.  Washington,  of 
whom  Dunmore  sought  information  respecting  west- 
ern affairs,  continued  hi  a  visits  at  the  governor's 
house ;  the  ball  in  honor  of  Lady  Dunmore  was  well 
attended.  Not  till  the  offices  of  courtesy  and  of 
patriotism  were  fulfilled,  did  most  of  the  burgesses 
return  home,  leaving  their  committee  on  duty. 

On  the  afternoon  of  Sunday  the  twenty-ninth,  the 
letters  from  Boston  reached  Williamsburg.  So  im- 
portant did  they  appear,  that  the  next  morning,  at 
ten  o'clock,  the  committee  having  called  to  their  aid 
Washington  and  all  other  burgesses  who  were  still  in 
town,  inaugurated  a  revolution.  As  they  collectively 
numbered  but  twenty-five,  they  refused  to  assume  the 
responsibility  of  definite  *  measures  of  resistance  ;  but 
as  the  province  was  without  a  legislature,  they  sum- 
moned a  convention  of  delegates  to  be  elected  by  the 
several  counties,  and  to  meet  at  the  capital  on  the 
first  day  of  the  ensuing  August. 

The  rescue  of  freedom  even  at  the  cost  of  a  civil 
war,  a  domestic  convention  of  the  people  for  their 


VOICES    FROM    THE    SOUTH.  55 

own  internal  regulation,  an  annual  congress  of  all  CHAP. 
the  colonies  for  the  perpetual  assertion  of  common 
rights,  were  the  policy  of  Virginia.  When  the  report 
of  her  measures  reached  England,  the  king's  minis- 
ters were  startled  by  their  significance ;  and  called  to 
mind  how  often  she  had  been  the  model  for  other 
colonies.  Her  influence  continued  undiminished ; 
and  her  system  was  promptly  adopted  by  the  people 
of  North  Carolina. 

"  Lord  North  had  no  expectation  that  we  should 
be  thus  sustained,"  said  Samuel  Adams  ;  "  he  trusted 
that  Boston  would  be  left  to  fall  alone."  But  the 
love  of  liberty  in  America  did  not  flash  like  elec- 
tricity on  the  surface ;  it  penetrated  the  mass  with 
magnetic  energy.  The  port-act  had  been  received 
on  the  tenth  of  May ;  and  in  three  weeks,  less  time 
than  was  taken  by  the  unanimous  British  parliament 
for  its  enactment,  the  continent,  as  "  one  great  com- 
monwealth," made  the  cause  of  Boston  its  own. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

\ 

MASSACHUSETTS   APPOINTS   THE   TIME  AND   PLACE   FOR  A 

GENERAL  CONGRESS. 
JUNE,  1774. 

CHAP.  ON  the  first  day  of  June,  Hutchinson  embarked  for 
^-v^  England ;  and  as  the  clocks  in  the  Boston  belfries 
XJune*  finisne(l  striking  twelve,  the  blockade  of  the  harbor 
*•  began.  The  inhabitants  of  the  town  were  chiefly 
traders,  shipwrights,  and  sailors;  and  since  no  an- 
chor could  be  weighed,  no  sail  unfurled,  no  vessel 
so  much  as  launched  from  the  stocks,  their  cheerful 
industry  was  at  an  end.  No  more  are  they  to 
lay  the  keel  of  the  fleet  merchantman,  or  shape 
the  rib  symmetrically  for  its  frame,  or  strengthen 
the  graceful ;  hull  by  knees  of  oak,  or  rig  the  well 
proportioned  masts,  or  bend  the  sails  to  the  yards. 
The  king  of  that  country  has  changed  the  busy 
workshops  into  scenes  of  compulsory  idleness,  and 
the  most  skilful  naval  artisans  in  the  world,  with  the 
keenest  eye  for  forms  of  beauty  and  speed,  are  forced 
by  act  of  parliament  to  fold  their  hands.  Want 
scowled  on  the  laborer,  as  he  sat  with  his  wife  and 


MASSACHUSETTS,    IN    JUNE,    1774.  57 

children  at  Ms  board.     The  sailor  roamed  the  streets  CHAP. 

IV. 

listlessly  without  hope  of  employment.  The  law  was  ^s~ 
executed  with  a  rigor  that  went  beyond  the  inten- 
tions  of  its  authors.  Not  a  scow  could  be  manned 
by  oars  to  bring  an  ox,  or  a  sheep,  or  a  bundle  of 
hay  from  the  islands.  All  water  carriage  from  pier 
to  pier,  though  but  of  lumber,  or  bricks,  or  lime, 
was  strictly  forbidden.  The  boats  between  Boston 
and  Charlestown  could  not  ferry  a  parcel  of  goods 
across  Charles  River ;  the  fishermen  of  Marblehead, 
when  from  their  hard  pursuit,  they  bestowed  quin- 
tals of  dried  fish  on  the  poor  of  Boston,  were  obliged 
to  transport  their  offering  in  wagons  by  a  circuit  of 
thirty  miles.  The  warehouses  of  the  thrifty  mer- 
chants were  at  once  made  valueless ;  the  costly 
wharfs,  which  extended  far  into  the  channel,  and 
were  so  lately  covered  with  the  produce  of  the 
tropics  and  with  English  fabrics,  were  become  *  soli- 
tary places  ;  the  harbor,  which  had  resounded  inces- 
santly with  the  cheering  voices  of  prosperous  com- 
merce, was  now  disturbed  by  no  sounds  but  from 
British  vessels  of  war. 

At  Philade]phia,  the  bells  of  the  churches  were 
muffled  and  tolled ;  the  ships  in  port  hoisted  their 
colors  at  half  mast ;  and  nine -tenths  of  the  houses, 
except  those  of  the  Friends,  were  shut  during  the 
memorable  First  of  June.  In  Virginia,  the  popula- 
tion thronged  the  churches;  "Washington  attended 
the  service,  and  strictly  kept  the  fast.  No  firmer  or 
more  touching  words  were  addressed  to  the  sufferers 
than  from  Norfolk,  which  was  the  largest  place  of 
trade  in  that  "  well-watered  and  extensive  dominion," 
and  which,  from  its  deep  channel  and  nearness  to 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


CHAP,  the  ocean,  lay  most  exposed  to  ships  of  war.     "  Our 
— v— • •  hearts  are  warmed  with  affection  for  you,"  such  was 
June    i*s  message;  "we   address  the  Almighty   Ruler  to 
support  you  in  your  afflictions.     Be  assured  we  con- 
sider you  as  suffering  in  the  common  cause,  and  look 
upon  ourselves  as  bound  by  the  most  sacred  ties  to 
support  you." 

Jefferson,  from  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge  of  the 
Alleghanies,  condemned  the  act,  which  in  a  moment 
reduced  an  ancient  and  wealthy  town  from  opu- 
lence to  want,  and  without  a  hearing  and  without 
discrimination,  sacrificed  property  of  the  value  of 
millions  to  revenge — not  repay — the  loss  of  a  few 
thousands.  "  If  the  pulse  of  the  people  beat  calmly 
under  such  an  experiment  by  the  new  and  till  now 
unheard  of  executive  power  of  a  British  parliament/7 
said  the  young  statesman,  "  another  and  another  will 
be  tried,  till  the  measure  of  despotism  be  filled  up." 
At  that  time  the  king  was  so  eager  to  give  effect 
to  the  law  which  subverted  the  charter  of  Massachu- 
setts, that  acting  upon  information  confessedly  insuffi- 
cient, he,  with  Dartmouth,  made  out  for  that  province 
a  complete  list  of  councillors,  called  mandamus  coun- 
cillors from  their  appointment  by  the  crown.  Copies 
of  letters  from  Franklin  and  from  Arthur  Lee  had 
been  obtained  ;  Gage  was  secretly  ordered  to  pro- 
cure, if  possible,  the  originals,  as  the  means  of  ar- 
raigning their  authors  for  treason.  Bernard  and 
Hutchinson  had  reported  that  the  military  power 
failed  to  intimidate,  because  no  colonial  civil  officer 
would  sanction  its  employment :  to  meet  the  exi- 
gency, Thurlow  and  "Wedderburn  furnished  their 
opinion,  that  such  power  belonged  to  the  governor 


MASSACHUSETTS,    IN    JUNE,    1774.  59 

himself  as  the  conservator  of  the  peace  in  all  cases  °HAP. 

whatsoever.     "  I  am  willing  to  suppose,"  says  Dart • — 

mouth,  "  that  the  people  will  quietly  submit  to  the  June ' 
correction  their  ill  conduct  has  brought  upon  them ; " 
but  in  case  they  should  not  prove  so  docile,  Gage 
was  required  to  bid  the  troops  fire  upon  them  at  his 
discretion ;  and  for  his  encouragement,  he  was  in- 
formed that  all  trials  of  officers  and  troops  for  homi- 
cides in  America,  were,  by  a  recent  act  of  parliament, 
removed  to  England. 

This  system  of  measures  was  regarded  by  its 
authors  as  a  masterpiece  of  statesmanship.  But 
where  was  true  greatness  really  to  be  found  ?  At 
the  council  board  of  vindictive  ministers  ?  In  the 
palace  of  the  king  who  preferred  the  loss  of  a  conti- 
nent to  a  compromise  of  absolute  power  ?  Or  in  the 
humble  mansion  of  the  proscribed  Samuel  Adams, 
who  shared  every  sorrow  of  his  native  town  ?  "  She 
suffers,"  said  he,  "  with  dignity,  and  rather  than  sub- 
mit to  the.  humiliating  terms  of  an  edict,  barbarous 
beyond  precedent  under  the  most  absolute  monarchy, 
she  will  put  the  malice  of  tyranny  to  the  severest 
trial."  "  An  empire  is  rising  in  America ;  and 
Britain,  by.  her  multiplied  oppressions,  is  accelerat- 
ing that  independency  which  she  dreads.  We  have 
a  post  to  maintain,  to  desert  which  would  entail 
upon  us  the  curses  of  posterity.  The  virtue  of  our 
ancestors  inspires  us  ;  they  were  contented  with  clams 
and  muscles.  For  my  own  part,  I  have  been  wont  to 
converse  with  poverty ;  and  however  disagreeable  a 
companion  she  may  be  thought  to  be  by  the  affluent 
and  luxurious  who  never  were  acquainted  with  her, 
I  can  live  happily  with  her  the  remainder  of  my 


60  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  days,  if  I  can  thereby  contribute  to  the  redemption 

^» —  of  my  country." 

June  These  were  his  words,  with  the  knowledge  that 
the  king's  order  for  his  arrest  was  hanging  over  his 
head,  to  be  enforced,  whenever  troops  enough  were 
brought  together  to  make  it  safe. 

The  Boston  committee  looked  the  danger  full  in 
the  face.  On  the  second  of  June,  they  received  and 
read  the  two  bills,  of  which  the  one  was  to  change 
the  charter  and  subvert  the  most  cherished  rights  of 
the  province ;  the  other,  to  grant  impunity  to  the 
British  army  for  acts  of  violence  in  enforcing  the  new 
system.  "  They  excited,"  says  their  record,  u  a  just 
indignation  in  the  mind  of  the  committee,"  whose 
members  saw  their  option  confined  to  abject  submis- 
sion or  an  open  rupture.  They  longed  to  escape  the 
necessity  of  the  choice  by  devising  some  measure 
which  might  recall  their  oppressors  to  moderation  and 
reason.  Accordingly,  Warren,  on  the  fifth,  reported 
"  a  solemn  league  and  covenant "  to  suspend  all  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  the  mother  country,  and 
neither  to  purchase  nor  consume  any  merchandise 
from  Great  Britain  after  the  last  day  of  the  ensuing 
August.  The  names  of  those  who  should  refuse  to 
sign  the  covenant,  were  to  be  published  to  the  world. 
Copies  of  this  paper  were  forwarded  to  every  town 
in  the  province,  with  a  letter  entreating  the  subscrip- 
tions of  all  the  people,  "  as  the  last  and  only  method 
of  preserving  the  land  from  slavery  without  drench- 
ing it  in  blood." 

The  proposition  proved  the  desire  for  conciliation. 
Had  a  country  which  was  without  manufactures  and 
munitions  of  war,  been  resolved  to  take  up  arms,  it 


MASSACHUSETTS,    IN    JUNE,    1774.  61 

would  have  extended  its  commerce,  in  order  to  accu-  CHAP. 
mulate  all  articles  of  first  necessity.  "  Nothing,"  said  ^^ 
the  patriots,  "is  more  foreign  from  our  hearts  than  a 
spirit  of  rebellion.  "Would  to  God  they  all,  even  our 
enemies,  knew  the  warm  attachment  we  have  for 
Great  Britain,  notwithstanding  we  have  been  con- 
tending these  ten  years  with  them  for  our  rights. 
What  can  they  gain  by  the  victory,  should  they  sub- 
jugate us?  What  will  be  the  glory  of  enslaving 
their  children  and  brothers  ?  Nay,  how  great  will 
be  the  danger  to  their  own  liberties  ? "  Thus  reasoned 
the  people  of  the  country  towns  in  Massachusetts; 
and  they  signed  "the  league  and  covenant,"  confi- 
dent that  they  would  have  only  to  sit  still  and  await 
the  bloodless  restoration  of  their  rights.  In  this  ex- 
pectation they  were  confirmed  by  the  opinions  of 
Burke  and  of  Franklin. 

From  the  committee  room  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Samuel 
Adams  hastened  to  the  general  assembly,  whose  first 
act  at  Salem  was  a  protest  against  the  arbitrary  order 
for  its  removal.  The  council,  in  making  the  custom- 
ary reply  to  the  governor's  speech  at  the  opening  of 
the  session,  laid  claim  to  the  rights  of  Englishmen 
without  diminution  or  "  abridgment."  But  as  they 
uttered  their  hope,  "that  his  administration  would 
be  a  happy  contrast  to  that  of  his  predecessors,"  Gage 
interrupted  their  chairman,  and  refused  to  receive 
the  address ;  because  the  conduct  of  those  predeces- 
sors had  been  approved,  and  therefore  the  expression 
"  was  an  insult  to  the  king,  and  an  affront  to  himself." 
But  the  right  of  a  legislative  body  to  express  an 
opinion  on  a  subordinate  executive  officer  was  unde- 
niable. Even  the  king  in  person  hears  an  address 

VOL.    VII.  6 


62  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  from   the  house   of  commons,  however   severely  it 

^•Y— -  may  reflect  on  a  minister.     When  Gage  treated  the 

June.'  censure  on  Bernard  and  Hutchinson  as  a  personal 

conflict  with  the  sovereign,  his  petulance  only  the 

more  tended  to  bring  that  sovereign  himself  into 

disrepute. 

The  house  of  representatives  was  the  fullest  ever 
knqwn.  The  continent  expected  of  them  to  fix  the 
time  and  place  for  the  meeting  of  the  general  con- 
gress. This  required  the  utmost  secrecy ;  for  they 
were  watched  by  officers  in  the  royal  service,  and 
any  perceptible  movement  would  have  been  followed 
by  an  instant  dissolution.  In  the  confusion  of 
nominations,  Daniel  Leonard,  of  Taunton,  who  had 
won  his  election  by  engaging  manners  and  professions 
of  patriotism,  which  yet  were  hollow,  succeeded  in 
being  appointed  one  of  the  committee  of  nine  on  the 
state  of  the  province.  Restrained  by  well-founded 
distrust  of  his  secret  relations,  that  committee  was 
therefore  cautious  to  entertain  nothing  but  vague 
propositions  for  conciliation ;  so  that  Leonard  de- 
ceived not  himself  only,  but  the  governor,  into  the 
belief,  that  the  legislature  would  lead  the  way  to 
concession,  and  that  on  the  arrival  of  more  troops,  an 
indemnity  to  the  East  India  company  would  be  pub- 
licly advocated. 

The  whole  continent  was  looking  towards  Boston. 
"Don't  pay  for  an  ounce  of  the  damned  tea,"  wrote 
Gadsden  on  the  fourteenth  of  June,  as  he  shipped  for 
the  poor  of  Boston  the  first  gifts  of  rice  from  the 
planters  of  Carolina.  On  that  day,  the  fourth  regi- 
ment, known  as  "  the  king's  own,"  encamped  on  Bos- 
ton Common;  the  next,  it  was  joined  by  the  forty- 


MASSACHUSETTS,    IN    JUNE,    1774.  63 

third.  Two  companies  of  artillery  and  eight  pieces  CHAP. 
of  ordnance  had  already  reenforced  Castle  William  ;  ^— - 
an.d  more  battalions  of  infantry  were  hourly  ex- 
pected.  The  friends  of  government  increased  their 
activity,  exerted  every  art  to  win  over  the  trades- 
men, and  assumed  a  menacing  aspect.  u  There  will 
be  no  congress,"  they  said ;  "  New  York  will  never 
appoint  members ;  Massachusetts  must  feel  that  she  is 
deserted."  To  a,  meeting  of  tradesmen,  a  plausible 
speaker  ventured  to  recommend  for  consideration  the 
manner  of  paying  for  the  tea ;  and  he  met  with  so 
much  success,  that  after  some  altercation,  they  sepa- 
rated without  coming  to  any  resolution.  But  War- 
ren, who  exerted  as  much  energy  to  save  his  country 
as  others  to  paralyze  its  spirit,  proved  to  his  friends, 
that  the  payment  in  any  form  would  open  the  way 
for  every  compliance  even  to  a  total  submission ;  and 
he  was  himself  encouraged  by  the  glowing  letter  from 
Baltimore.  "  Vigilance,  activity,  and  patience,"  he 
cried,  "  are  necessary  at  this  time ;  but  the  mistress 
we  serve  is  Liberty,  and  it  is  better  to  die  than  not 
to  obtain  her."  "  We  shall  be  saved,"  he  added ;  and 
that  no  cloud  might  rest  on  the  "  fortitude,  honesty, 
and  foresight "  of  Boston,  a  town  meeting  was  called 
for  the  following  Friday. 

Samuel  Adams  received  a  summons  to  come  and 
guide  its  debates ;  but  a  higher  duty  kept  him  at 
Salem.  The  legislative  committee  of  nine  appeared 
so  tame,  that  Leonard  returned  to  Taunton  on  busi- 
ness as  a  lawyer.  Meantime,  Samuel  Adams  had  on 
one  evening  secretly  consulted  four  or  five  of  his  col- 
leagues ;  on  another  a  larger  number ;  on  the  third 
BO  many  as  thirty ;  and  on  the  morning  of  Friday, 


64  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the  seventeenth  of  June,  confident  of  having  the  per- 
— ^*"  feet  control  of  the  house,  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
June  nme  being  present,  he  locked  the  door,  and  proposed 
the  measure  he  had  matured.  The  time  fixed  for 
the  congress  was  the  first  •  day  of  September,  the 
place  Philadelphia,  where  there  was  no  army  to  in- 
terrupt its  sessions.  Bowdoin,  who,  however,  proved 
unable  to  attend,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  Gush- 
ing, and  Robert  Treat  Paine  were  chosen  delegates. 
To  defray  their  expenses,  a  tax  of  five  hundred  pounds 
was  apportioned  on  the  province.  The  towns  were 
charged  to  afford  speedy  and  constant  relief  to  Bos- 
ton and  Charlestown,  whose  fortitude  was  preserving 
the  liberties  of  their  country.  Domestic  manufac- 
tures were  encouraged,  and  it  was  strongly  recom- 
mended to  discontinue  the  use  of  all  goods  imported 
from  the  East  Indies  and  Great  Britain,  until  the 
public  grievances  of  America  should  be  radically  and 
totally  redressed. 

In  the  midst  of  these  proceedings  the  governor 
sent  his  secretary  with  a  message  for  dissolving  the 
assembly.  But  he  knocked  at  its  door  in  vain,  and 
could  only  read  the  proclamation  to  the  crowd  on 
the  stairs.  "  I  could  not  get  a  worse  council,  or  a 
worse  assembly,"  reported  Gage ;  "  with  exceptions, 
they  appear  little  more  than  echoes  to  the  contrivers 
of  all  the  mischief  in  the  town  of  Boston,  those  dema- 
gogues now  spiriting  up  the  people  throughout  the 
province  to  resistance." 

The  number  which  on  that  same  day  thronged  to 
the  town  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  was  greater  than 
the  room  would  hold.  Samuel  Adams  was  not  miss- 
ed, for  his  kinsman,  John  Adams,  was  elected  mode- 


MASSACHUSETTS,    IN    JUNE,    1774.  65 

rator.  When  he  had  taken  the  chair,  the  friends  CHAP. 
to  the  scheme  of  indemnifying  the  East  India  com- 
pany  for  their  loss,  were  invited  to  "  speak  freely," 
that  a  matter  of  such  importance  might  be  fairly  dis- 
cussed in  the  presence  of  the  general  body  of  the 
people ;  but  not  a  man  rose  in  defence  of  the  propo- 
sition. The  blockade,  the  fleets,  the  army,  could  not 
bring  out  a  symptom  of  compliance. 

A  month  before,  John  Adams  had  said,  "  I  have 
very  little  connection  with  public  affairs,  and  I  hope 
to  have  less."  For  many  years  he  had  refused  to 
attend  town  meetings ;  he  had  kept  aloof  from  the 
committee  of  correspondence,  even  in  the  time  when 
it  concerted  the  destruction  of  the  tea.  The  morning 
of  that  day  dawned  on  him  in  private  life  ;  the  even- 
ing saw  him  a  representative  of  Massachusetts  to  the 
general  congress.  That  summer  he  followed  the 
circuit  for  the  last  time.  "  Great  Britain,"  thus 
Sewal],  his  friend  and  associate  at  the  bar,  expostu- 
lated with  him,  as  they  strolled  together  on  the  hill 
that  overhangs  Casco  Bay,  with  its  thousand  isles, 
"  Great  Britain  is  determined  on  her  system ;  and 
her  power  is  irresistible."  "  That  very  determination 
of  Great  Britain  in  her  system,  determines  mine," 
answered  Adams;  "swim  or  sink,  live  or  die,  sur- 
vive or  perish  with  my  country,  is  my  unalterable 
determination."  The  White  Mountains  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  ocean  on  the  other,  were  witnesses  to 
the  patriot's  vow  "  I  see  we  must  part,"  rejoined 
Sewall ;  "  but  this  adieu  is  the  sharpest  thorn  on 
which  I  ever  set  my  foot." 

Two  days  in  advance  of  Massachusetts,  the  assem- 
bly of  Rhode  Island  unanimously  chose  delegates  to 

VOL    VII.  6* 


66  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the   general    congress,   which   they   desired   to   see 

^-v— >  annually  renewed. 

June  ^e  Promptness  of  Maryland  was  still  more  re- 
markable ;  for  it  could  proceed  only  by  a  convention 
of  its  people.  But  so  universal  was  their  zeal,  so 
rapid  their  organization,  that  their  provincial  con- 
vention met  at  Annapolis  on  the  twenty-second  of 
June,  and  before  any  message  had  been  received  from 
Salem,  they  elected  delegates  to  the  congress.  With 
a  modesty  worthy  of  their  courage,  they  apologized 
to  Virginia  for  moving  in  advance ;  pleading  as  their 
excuse  the  inferiority  of  their  province  in  extent  and 
numbers,  so  that  less  time  was  needed  to  ascertain 
its  sentiments. 


CHAPTEK    V. 

BOSTON  MINISTERED  TO  BY  THE  CONTINENT. 
JUNE,  JULY,  1774. 

THE  martyr  town  was  borne  up  in  its  agony  by  mes-  CHAP. 
sages  of  sympathy.  From  Marblehead  came  offers  to  ^~ 
the  Boston  merchants  of  the  gratuitous  use  of  its  har- 
bor,  its  wharfs,  its  warehouses,  and  of  all  necessary 
personal  attendance  in  lading  and  unlading  goods. 
Forty-eight  persons  were  found  in  Salem,  willing  to 
entreat  of  Gage  his  "  patronage  for  the  trade  of  that 
place;"  but  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  of  its  mer- 
chants and  freeholders  addressed  him  in  a  spirit  of 
disinterestedness,  repelling  the  ungenerous  thought 
of  turning  the  course  of  trade  from  Boston.  "Na- 
ture," said  they  nobly,  "in  the  formation  of  our 
harbor,  forbids  our  becoming  rivals  in  commerce  to 
that  convenient  mart.  And  were  it  otherwise,  we 
must  be  lost  to  all  the  feelings  of  humanity,  could  we 
indulge  one  thought  to  seize  on  wealth  and  raise  our 
fortunes  on  the  ruin  of  our  suffering  neighbors." 

The  governor,  in  his  answer,  threw  all  blame  on 
Boston,   for  refusing  to  indemnify  the  East  India 


68  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  company,  and  he  employed  every  device  to  produce 
— ', —  compliance.  It  was  published  at  the  corners  of  the 
l774-  streets  that  Pennsylvania  would  refuse  to  suspend 
commerce ;  that  the  society  of  Friends  would  arrest 
every  step  towards  war ;  that  New  York  had  not 
named,  and  would  never  name,  deputies  to  congress ; 
that  the  power  of  Great  Britain  could  not  fail  to 
crush  resistance.  The  exasperation  of  the  selfish  at 
their  losses,  which  they  attributed  to  the  committee 
of  correspondence,  the  innate  reverence  for  order,  the 
habitual  feeling  of  loyalty,  the  deeply-seated  love  for 
England,  the  terror  inspired  by  regiments,  artillery, 
and  ships  of  war,  the  allurements  of  official  favor, 
the  confidence  that  the  king  must  prevail,  disposed 
a  considerable  body  of  men  to  seek  the  recovery  of 
prosperity  by  concession.  "  The  act,"  wrote  Gage  on 
the  twenty-sixth,  "  must  certainly  sooner  or  later  work 
its  own  way  ;  a  congress  of  some  sort  may  be  ob- 
tained; but,  after  all,  Boston  may  get  little  more 
than  fair  words." 

The  day  after  this  was  written,  a  town  meeting 
was  held.  As  Faneuil  Hall  could  not  contain  the 
thronging  inhabitants,  they  adjourned  to  the  Old 
South  Meeting-house.  There  the  opposition  mustered 
their  utmost  strength,  in  the  hope  of  carrying  a  vote 
of  censure  on  the  committee  of  correspondence.  The 
question  of  paying  for  the  tea  was  artfully  evaded, 
while  "  the  league  and  covenant,"  which  in  truth  was 
questionable  both  in  policy  and  form,  was  chosen 
as  the  object  of  cavil.  New  York  had  superseded 
the  old  committee  by  a  more  moderate  one  ;  it  was 
proposed  that  Boston  should  do  the  same.  The 
patriot,  Sanfuel  Adams,  finding  himself  not  only  pro- 


BOSTON   MINISTERED    TO    BY    THE    CONTINENT.  69 

scribed  by  the  kiog,  but  on  trial  in  a  Boston  town  CHAP. 
meeting,  left  the  chair,  and  took  his  place  on  the  — ^— 
floor.  His  enemies  summoned  hardihood  to  engage 
with  him  in  debate,  in  which  they  were  allowed  the 
utmost  freedom.  Through  the  midsummer-day  they 
were  heard  patiently  till  dark,  and  at  their  own  re- 
quest were  indulged  with  an  adjournment.  On  the 
next  day,  notwithstanding  the  utmost  exertion  of  the 
influence  of  the  government,  the  motion  of  censure 
was  negatived  by  a  vast  majority.  The  town  then, 
by  a  deliberate  vote,  bore  open  testimony  "to  the 
upright  intentions  and  honest  zeal  of  their  commit- 
tee of  correspondence,"  and  desired  them  "to  con- 
tinue steadfast  in  the  way  of  well-doing." 

After  this  result,  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine, 
chiefly  the  addressers  to  Hutchinson,  confident  of  a 
speedy  triumph  through  the  power  of  Britain,  osten- 
tatiously set  their  names  to  a  protest  which,  under 
the  appearance  of  anxiety  for  the  prosperity  of  the 
town,  recommended  unqualified  submission.  They 
would  have  robbed  Boston  of  its  great  name,  and 
made  it  a  byword  of  reproach  in  the  annals  of  the 
world. 

The  governor  hurried  to  the  aid  of  his  partisans, 
and  on  the  following  day,  without  the  consent  of  the 
council,  issued  the  proclamation,  from  which  British 
influence  never  recovered.  He  called  the  combina- 
tion not  to  purchase  articles  imported  from  Great 
Britain  "  unwarrantable,  hostile,  and  traitorous ; "  its 
subscribers  "  open  and  declared  enemies  of  the  king 
and  parliament  of  Great  Britain  ;  "  and  he  "  enjoined 
and  commanded  all  magistrates  and  other  officers 
within  the  several  counties  of  the  province,  to  appre- 


70  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  hend  and  secure  for  trial,  all  persons  who  might  pub- 
lish,  or  sign,  or  invite  others  to  sign  the  covenant." 


1774.         ]v^0  ac£  cou](j  nave  been  more  futile  or  more  un- 

June. 

wise.  The  malignity  of  the  imputation  of  treason  was 
heightened  by  the  pretended  rule  of  law  that  the 
persons  so  accused  might  be  dragged  for  trial  to 
England.  For  any  purpose  of  making  arrests  the 
proclamation  was  useless  ;  but  as  the  exponent  of  the 
temper  of  an  administration  which  chose  the  gallows 
to  avenge  the  simple  agreement  not  to  buy  English 
goods,  it  was  read  throughout  the  continent  with 
uncontrollable  indignation.  In  Boston  the  report 
prevailed  that  as  soon  as  more  soldiers  should  be 
landed,  six  or  seven  of  the  leading  patriots  would  be 
seized  ;  and  it  was  in  truth  the  project  of  Gage  to 
fasten  charges  of  rebellion  on  individuals  as  a  pretext 
July,  for  sending  them  to  jail.  On  Friday,  the  first  of  July, 
•  Admiral  Graves  arrived  in  the  "  Preston,"  of  sixty 
guns;  on  Saturday  the  train  of  artillery  was  en- 
camped on  the  common  by  the  side  of  two  regiments 
that  were  there  before.  On  Monday  these  were  re- 
enforced  by  the  fifth  and  thirty-eighth.  Arrests,  it 
was  confidently  reported,  were  now  to  be  made.  In 
this  moment  of  greatest  danger,  the  Boston  commit- 
tee of  correspondence,  Samuel  Adams,  the  two  Green- 
leafs,  Molyneux,  Warren  and  others  being  present, 
considered  the  rumor  that  some  of  them  were  to  be 
taken  up,  and  voted  unanimously  "  that  they  would 
attend  their  business  as  usual,  unless  prevented  by 
brutal  force." 

"  The  attempt  to  intimidate,"  said  the  patriots, 
"  is  lost  labor."  The  spirit  of  defiance  gave  an  im- 
pulse to  the  covenant.  At  Plymouth  the  subscribers 


BOSTON    MINISTERED    TO    BY    THE    CONTINENT.  71 

increased  at  once  to  about  a  hundred.  The  general  CHAP. 
who  had  undertaken  to  frighten  the  people,  excused  — ^- 
himself  from  executing  his  threats,  by  his  dread  of 
the  edicts  of  town  meetings,  which,  he  complained  to 
the  king,  controlled  the  pulpit,  the  press,  and  the 
multitude,  overawed  the  judges,  and  screened  "  the 
guilty."  "The  usurpation,"  said  he,  "has  by  time 
acquired  a  firmness  that  is  not  to  be  annihilated  at 
once,  or  by  ordinary  methods." 

The  arrival  of  Hutchinson  in  England  lulled  the 
king  into  momentary  security.  Tryon  from  New 
York  had  said,  that  the  ministers  must  put  forth  the 
whole  power  of  Great  Britain,  if  they  would  bring 
America  to  their  feet  ;  Carleton,  the  governor  of 
Canada,  thought  it  not  safe  to  undertake  a  march 
from  the  Saint  Lawrence  to  New  York  with  an  army 
of  less  than  ten  thousand  men ;  but  Hutchinson,  who, 
on  reaching  London,  was  hurried  by  Dartmouth  to  the 
royal  presence  without  time  to  change  his  clothes, 
assured  the  king,  that  the  port-bill  was  "  the  only 
wise  and  effective  method "  of  bringing  the  people  of 
Boston  to  submission  ;  that  it  had  occasioned  among 
them  extreme  alarm ;  that  no  one  colony  would  comply 
with  their  request  for  a  general  suspension  of  com- 
merce ;  that  Rhode  Island  had  accompanied  its  re- 
fusal with  a  sneer  at  their  selfishness.  The  king 
listened  eagerly.  He  had  been  greedy  for  all  kinds 
of  stories  respecting  Boston ;  had  been  told,  and  had 
believed  that  Hutchinson  had  needed  a  guard  for  his 
personal  safety  ;  that  the  New  England  ministers,  for 
the  sake  of  promoting  liberty,  preached  a  toleration 
for  any  immoralities  ;  that  Hancock's  bills,  to  a  large 
amount,  had  been  dishonored.  He  had  himself  given 


72  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  close  attention  to  the  appointments  to  office  in  Massa- 
— v— '  chusetts.  He  knew  something  of  the  political  opin- 
*ons  even  °^  ^ae  Boston  ministers,  not  of  Chauncy 
and  Cooper  only,  but  also  of  Pemberton,  whom,  as 
a  friend  to  government,  he  esteemed  "  a  very  good 
man,"  though  a  dissenter.  The  name  of  John  Adams, 
who  had  only  in  June  commenced  his  active  public 
career,  had  not  yet  been  heard  in  the  palace  which  he 
was  so  soon  to  enter  as  the  minister  of  a  republic. 
Of  Gushing,  he  estimated  the  importance  too  highly. 
Aware  of  the  controlling  power  of  Samuel  Adams, 
he  asked,  "  What  gives  him  his  influence  ? "  and 
Hutchinson  answered,  "  A  great  pretended  zeal  for 
liberty,  and  a  most  inflexible  natural  temper.  He 
was  the  first  who  asserted  the  independency  of  the 
colonies  upon  the  supreme  authority  of  the  kingdom." 
For  nearly  two  hours,  the  king  continued  inquiries 
respecting  Massachusetts  and  other  provinces,  and 
was  encouraged  in  the  delusion  that  Boston  would 
be  left  unsupported.  The  author  of  the  pleasing 
intelligence  became  at  once  a  favorite,  obtained  a 
large  pension,  was  offered  the  rank  of  baronet,  and 
was  consulted  as  an  oracle  by  Gibbon,  the  historian, 
and  other  politicians  of  the  court. 

"  I  have  just  seen  the  governor  of  Massachusetts," 
wrote  the  king  to  Lord  North,  at  the  end  of  their 
interview,  u  and  I  am  now  well  convinced  the  prov- 
ince will  soon  submit ; "  and  he  gloried  in  the  efficacy 
of  his  favorite  measure,  the  Boston  port-act.  But  as 
soon  as  the  true  character  of  that  act  became  known 
in  America,  every  colony,  every  city,  every  village, 
and,  as  it  were,  the  inmates  of  every  farm-house,  felt 
it  as  a  wound  of  their  affections.  The  towns  of  Mas- 


BOSTON    MINISTERED    TO    BY    THE    CONTINENT.  73 

sachusetts  abounded   in  kind  offices.     The  colonies  CHAP. 

y 

vied  with  each  other  in  liberality.  The  record  kept  — ^~ 
at  Boston  shows  that  "  the  patriotic  and  generous 
people "  of  South  Carolina  were  the  first  to  minister 
to  the  sufferers,  sending  early  in  June  two  hundred 
barrels  of  rice,  and  promising  eight  hundred  more. 
At  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  the  sum  of  two  thou- 
sand pounds  currency  was  raised  in  a  few  days ;  the 
women  of  the  place  gave  liberally ;  Parker  Quince 
offered  his  vessel  to  carry  a  load  of  provisions  freight 
free,  and  master  and  mariners  volunteered  to  navi- 
gate her  without  wages.  Lord  North  had  called  the 
American  union  a  rope  of  sand  ;  "  it  is  a  rope  of  sand 
that  will  hang  him,"  said  the  people  of  Wilmington. 

Hartford  was  the  first  place  in  Connecticut  to 
pledge  its  assistance;  but  the  earliest  donation  re- 
ceived, was  of  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  sheep  from 
Windham.  "The  taking  away  of  civil  liberty  will 
involve  the  ruin  of  religious  liberty  also,"  wrote  the 
ministers  of  Connecticut  to  the  ministers  of  Boston, 
cheering  them  to  bear  their  heavy  load  "  with  vigor- 
ous Christian  fortitude  and  resolution."  "  While  we 
complain  to  Heaven  and  earth  of  the  cruel  oppression 
we  are  under,  we  ascribe  righteousness  to  God,"  was 
the  answer.  "The  surprising  union  of  the  colonies 
affords  encouragement.  It  is  an  inexhaustible  source 
of  comfort  that  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth." 

The  small  parish  of  Brooklyn,  in  Connecticut, 
through  their  committee,  of  which  Israel  Putnam 
was  a  member,  opened  a  correspondence  with  Bos- 
ton. "Your  zeal  in  favor  of  liberty,"  they  said, 
"  has  gained  a  name  that  shall  perish  but  with  the 
glorious  constellations  of  Heaven ; "  and  they  made  an 

VOL.    VII.  7 


/4  AMERICAN   INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  offering  of  flocks  of  sheep  and  lambs.     Throughout 
v^v^  New  England  the  towns  sent  rye,  flour,  peas,  cattle, 
July.'  sheep,  oil,  fish ;  whatever  land  or  sea  could  furnish, 
and  sometimes  gifts  of  money.     The  French  inhabi- 
tants of  Quebec,  joining  with  those  of  English  origin, 
shipped  a  thousand  and  forty  bushels  of  wheat. 

Delaware  was  so  much  in  earnest,  that  it  devised 
plans  for  sending  relief  annually.  A  special  chroni- 
cle could  hardly  enumerate  all  the  generous  deeds. 
Maryland  and  Virginia  contributed  liberally ;  being 
resolved  that  the  men  of  Boston,  who  were  deprived 
of  their  daily  labor,  should  not  lose  their  daily  bread, 
nor  be  compelled  to  change  their  residence  for  want. 
Washington  headed  a  subscription  paper  with  a  gift 
of  fifty  pounds  ;  and  he  presided  at  a  convention  of 
Fairfax  county,  where  twenty-four  very  comprehen- 
sive resolutions,  which  had  been  drafted  by  George 
Mason  and  carefully  revised  and  corrected  by  a  com- 
mittee, were,  with  but  one  dissentient  voice,  adopted 
by  the  freeholders  and  inhabitants.  They  derived 
•  the  settlement  of  Virginia  from  a  solemn  compact 
with  the  crown,  conceded  no  right  of  legislation  to 
the  British  parliament,  acknowledged  only  a  condi- 
tional acquiescence  in  the  acts  of  navigation,  enumer- 
ated the  various  infringements  of  American  rights, 
proposed  non-importation  and,  if  necessary,  ^on-ex- 
portation as  means  of  temporary  resistance,  urged  the 
appointment  of  a  congress  of  deputies  from  all  the 
colonies,  and  recommended  that  that  congress  should 
conjure  the  king,  "  not  to  reduce  his  faithful  subjects 
to  a  state  of  desperation,  and  to  reflect,  that  from 
their  sovereign  there  could  be  but  one  appeal."  As 
to  the  further  importation  of  slaves,  their  words  were : 


BOSTON    MINISTERED    TO    BY    THE    CONTINENT.  75 

"  We    take    this   opportunity  of  declaring  our  most  CHAP. 
earnest  wishes  to  see  an  entire  stop  for  ever  put  to  ^^ 
such  a  wicked,  cruel,  and  unnatural  trade."     These   juiy.' 
resolves  which  expressed  u  the  sense  of  the  people  of 
Fairfax  county,"  were  ordered  to  be  presented  to  the 
first  convention  of  Virginia.     "  We  are  not  contend- 
ing against  paying  the  duty  of  threepence  per  pound 
on  tea  as  burthensome,"  said  Washington ;  "  No  ;  it 
is  the  right  only,  that  we  have  all  along  disputed." 

Beyond  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  hardy  emigrants  on 
the  banks  of  the  Shenandoah,  many  of  them  Ger- 
mans, met  at  Woodstock,  and  with  Muhlenberg,  then 
a  clergyman,  soon  to  be  a  military  chief,  devoted 
themselves  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  Higher  up  the 
Valley  of  Virginia,  where  the  plough  already  vied 
with  the  rifle,  and  the  hardy  hunters,  not  always 
ranging  the  hills  with  their  dogs  for  game,  had  also 
begun  to  till  the  soil,  the  summer  of  that  year  ripened 
the  wheat-fields  of  the  pioneers,  not  for  themselves 
alone.  When  the  sheaves  had  been  harvested,  and 
the  corn  threshed  and  ground  in  a  country  as  yet 
poorly  provided  with  barns  or  mills,  the  backwoods- 
men of  Augusta  county,  without  any  pass  through 
the  mountains  that  could  be  called  a  road,  noiselessly 
and  modestly  delivered  at  Frederick,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  barrels  of  flour  as  their  remittance  to 
the  poor  of  Boston.  Cheered  by  the  universal  sym- 
pathy, the  inhabitants  of  that  town  "  were  deter- 
mined to  hold  out  and  appeal  to  the  justice  of  the 
colonies  and  of  the  world ; "  trusting  in  God  that 
"  these  things  should  be  overruled  for  the  establish- 
ment of  liberty,  virtue,  and  happiness  in  America." 


CHAPTER   VI. 

AMERICA  RESOLVES  TO  MEET  IN  GENERAL  CONGRESS. 

JULY,  1774. 
CHAP.  GEOEGE  THE  THIED  ranked  "  New  York  next  to  Bos- 

VI 

— ^  ton  in  opposition  to  government."  There  was  no 
17  74:-  place  where  a  congress  was  more  desired,  and  none 
where  the  determinations  of  the  congress  were  more 
sure  to  be  observed.  The  numerous  emigrants  from 
New  England  brought  with  them  New  England 
principles;  the  Dutch,  as  a  body,  never  loved 
Britain.  Of  the  two  great  families  which  the  system 
of  manorial  grants  had  raised  up,  the  Livingstons 
inclined  to  republicanism,  and  uniting  activity  to 
wealth  and  ability,  exercised  a  predominant  influ- 
ence. The  Delanceys,  who,  by  taking  advantage  of 
temporary  prejudices,  had,  four  years  before,  carried 
the  assembly,  no  longer  retained  the  public  confi- 
dence ;  and  outside  of  the  legislature,  their  power 
was  imperceptible. 

After  being  severed  from  Holland,  its  mother 
country,  New  York  had  no  attachment  to  any  Euro- 
pean State.  All  agreed  in  the  necessity  of  resisting 


AMERICA    RESOLVES    TO    MEET    IN    CONGRESS.  77 

the  pretensions  of  England ;  but  differences  arose  as  CHAP. 
to  the  persons  to  be  intrusted  with  the  direction  of  — **-* 
that  resistance ;  and  as  to  the  imminence  and  extent 
of  the  danger.  The  merchants  wished  no  interrup- 
tion to  commerce ;  the  Dutch  Reformed  church,  as 
well  as  the  Episcopalians,  were  not  free  from  jealousy 
of  the  Congregationalists,  and  the  large  land-holders 
were  alarmed  by  the  levelling  spirit  and  social  equali- 
ty of  New  England.  The  people  of  New  York  had 
destroyed  consignments  of  the  East  India  company's 
tea ;  but  from  them  the  British  ministry  had  borne 
the  insult  without  rebuke  ;  striving  only  by  bland 
language  to  lull  them  into  repose.  The  executive 
officers  had  for  several  years  avoided  strife  with  the 
assembly,  listening  patiently  to  its  complaints,  and 
seeking  to  comply  with  its  importunities  ;  so  that  no 
angry  feeling  existed  between  the  provincial  legisla- 
ture and  the  royal  governors.  The  city  had,  more- 
over, been  the  centre  of  British  patronage,  and  friends 
had  been  won  by  the  distribution  of  contracts,  and 
sometimes  by  commissions  in  the  army.  The  organs 
of  the  ministry  were  to  cajole,  to  favor,  or  to  corrupt; 
above  all,  to  give  a  promise  on  the  part  of  the  crown 
of  a  spirit  of  equity,  which  its  conduct  towards  the 
province  seemed  to  warrant  as  sincere.  Besides,  the 
assembly  had  Edmund  Burke  for  its  agent,  and  still 
hoped  that  his  influence  in  public  affairs  would  corre- 
spond to  their  just  estimate  of  his  fidelity.  The  lovers 
of  peace,  which  is  always  so  dear  to  a  commercial 
community,  revolted  at  the  thought  of  an  early  and 
unavoidable  "appeal"  to  arms,  caught  eagerly  at 
every  chance  of  an  honorable  escape  from  the  certain 
miseries  of  a  desperate  conflict,  and  exerted  them- 

VOL.    VII.  7* 


78  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  selves  strenuously  to  secure  the  management  of  affairs 
— r— '  to  men  of  property.  For  this  end  they  relied  on 
*ke  ability  of  John  Jay,  a  young  lawyer  of  New 
York,  whose  name  now  first  appears  conspicuous- 
ly in  the  annals  of  his  country.  Descended  from 
Huguenot  refugees,  educated  in  the  city  at  its  college, 
of  the  severest  purity  of  morals,  a  hard  student,  an 
able  writer,  a  ready  speaker ;  recently  connected  with 
the  family  of  Livingston  by  marriage ;  his  superior 
endowments,  his  activity  and  his  zeal  for  liberty, 
tempered  by  a  love  for  order,  made  him  for  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  distinguished  in  his  native  state.  At 
that  time  he  joined  the  dignity  of  manhood  to  the 
energy  of  youth.  He  was  both  shy  and  proud,  and 
his  pride,  though  it  became  less  visible,  suffered  no 
diminution  from  time.  Tenacious  of  his  purposes  and 
his  opinions,  sensitive  to  indignities  and  prone  to 
sudden  resentments,  not  remarkable  for  self-posses- 
sion, with  a  countenance  not  trained  to  concealment, 
neither  easy  of  access,  nor  quick  in  his  advances, 
gifted  with  no  deep  insight  into  character,  he  had 
neither  talents  nor  inclination  for  intrigue ;  and  but 

O  " 

for  his  ambition,  which  he  always  subjected  to  his 
sense  of  right,  he  would  have  seemed  formed  for 
study  and  retirement. 

On  Monday,  the  fourth  day  of  July,  it  was  carried 
in  the  committee  of  fifty-one,  that  delegates  should  be 
selected  to  serve  in  the  general  congress.  Sears,  who 
was  still  foremost  in  the  confidence  of  the  mechanics, 
seconded  by  Peter  Van  Brugh  Livingston,  a  man  of 
great  intelligence,  proposed  John  Morin  Scott  and 
Alexander  Macdougall.  Fitter  candidates  could  not 
have  been  found ;  but  they  were  both  passed  over  by 


AMERICA    RESOLVES    TO    MEET    IN    CONGRESS.  79 

a  great  majority,  and  the  committee  nominated  Philip  CHAR 
Livingston,  Alsop,  Low,  Duane,  and  Jay  for  the  ap-  — ^ 
proval  of  the  people.  Of  these  five,  Livingston  as 
yet  dreaded  the  thought  of  independence ;  Alsop 
was  incompetent ;  Low  was  at  heart  a  tory,  as  at  a 
later  day  he  avowed ;  Duane,  justly  eminent  as  a 
lawyer,  was  embarrassed  by  large  speculations  in 
Vermont  lands,  from  which  he  could  derive  no  profit 
but  through  the  power  of  the  crown.  The  mass  of 
the  inhabitants  resolved  to  defeat  this  selection.  On 
Wednesday,  the  sixth  of  July,  many  of  them,  espe- 
cially mechanics,  assembled  in  the  Fields,  and  with 
Macdougall  in  the  chair,  they  recommended  the  Bos- 
ton policy  of  suspending  trade,  and  approved  a  gen- 
eral congress,  to  which,  after  the  example  of  Virginia, 
they  proposed  to  elect  representatives  by  a  colonial 
convention. 

It  has  been  kept  in  memory,  that  on  this  occasion 
a  young  man  from  abroad,  so  small  and  delicate  in 
his  organization,  that  he  appeared  to  be  much 
younger  than  perhaps  he  really  was,  took  part  in 
the  debate  before  the  crowd.  They  asked  one  an- 
other the  name  of  the  gifted  stranger,  who  shone 
like  a  star  first  seen  above  a  haze,  of  whose  rising  no 
one  had  taken  note.  He  proved  to  be  Alexander 
Hamilton,  a  West  Indian.  His  mother,  while  he 
was  yet  a  child,  had  left  hin}  an  orphan  and  poor. 
A  father's  care  he  seems  never  to  have  known. 
The  first  written  trace  of  his  existence  is  in  1766, 
when  his  name  occurs  as  witness  to  a  legal  paper 
executed  in  the  Danish  island  of  Santa  Cruz.  Three 
years  later,  when  he  had  become  "  a  youth,"  he 
"contemned  the  grovelling  condition  of  a  clerk," 


80  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  fretted  at  the  narrow  bounds  of  Ms  island  cage,  and 
^v—  to  a  friend  of  Ms  own  years  confessed  Ms  ambition. 


willingly  risk  my  life,"  said  he,  "though 
not  my  character,  to  exalt  my  station.  I  mean  to 
prepare  the  way  for  futurity  ;  we  have  seen  such 
schemes  successful  when  the  projector  is  constant." 
That  way  he  prepared  by  integrity  of  conduct,  dfli 
gence  and  study.  After  an  education  as  a  merchant 
during  which  he  once  at  least  conducted  a  voyage, 
and  once  had  the  charge  of  his  employer's  business, 
he  found  himself  able  to  repair  to  New  York,  where 
he  entered  the  college  before  the  end  of  1773.  Trained 
from  childhood  to  take  care  of  himself,  he  possessed 
a  manly  self-reliance.  His  first  sympathies  in  the 
contest  had  been  on  the  British  side  against  the 
Americans  ;  but  he  soon  changed  his  opinions  ;  and 
in  July,  1774,  cosmopolitan  New  York,  where  he  had 
neither  father,  nor  mother,  nor  sister,  nor  brother,  nor 
one  person  in  whose  veins  ran  the  same  blood  as  his 
own,  adopted  the  volunteer  from  the  tropics  as  its  son. 
The  committee  of  fifty-one,  with  some  of  whom 
Hamilton  was  to  be  bound  by  the  closest  political 
ties,  keeping  steadily  in  view  the  hope  of  conciliation 
with  England,  disavowed  the  meeting  in  the  Fields. 
A  minority  of  nine,  Sears,  Macdougall,  Van  Brugh 
Livingston  being  of  the  number,  in  their  turn  disa- 
vowed the  committee  from  which  they  withdrew. 
The  conservative  party,  on  their  side,  offered  resolu- 
tions which  Jay  had  drafted,  and  which  seemed  to 
question  the  conduct  of  Boston  in  destroying  the 
tea  ;  but  the  people,  moved  by  the  eloquence  of 
John  Morin  Scott,  rejected  the  whole  series,  as 
wanting  in  vigor,  sense,  and  integrity,  and  tending 
to  disunion. 


AMERICA    RESOLVES    TO    MEET   IN    CONGRESS.  81 

Thus  began  the  conflict  of  two  parties  which  CHAP. 
were  to  increase  in  importance  and  spread  through- 
out  the  country.  The  one  held  to  what  was  estab- 
lished,  and  made  changes  only  from  necessity ;  the 
other  welcomed  reform,  and  went  out  to  meet  it. 
The  one  anchored  on  men  of  property ;  the  other  on 
the  mass  of  the  people ;  the  one,  mildly  loving  lib- 
erty, was  ever  anxious  for  order ;  the  other,  firtiily 
attached  to  order  which  it  never  doubted  its  power 
to  maintain,  was  anxious  only  for  freedom ;  the  one 
distrusted  the  multitude  as  capable  of  rashness ;  the 
other  suspected  the  few  as  at  heart  the  enemies  to 
popular  power. 

During  this  strife  in  New  York,  the  inhabitants 
of  South  Carolina  held  in  Charleston  a  meeting  which 
continued  through  three  days.  The  merchants, 
among  whom  were  factors  for  British  houses,  agreed 
with  the  planters  in  the  necessity  of  a  congress  to 
which  both  parties,  by  way  of  compromise,  referred 
the  regulation  of  commerce.  As  the  election  of  depu- 
ties was  to  be  contested,  the  name  of  each  voter  was 
registered,  and  the  ballot  kept  open  till  midnight  on 
the  seventh.  It  then  appeared  that  the  planters 
had  carried  Gadsden,  Lynch,  and  John  Eutledge, 
the  faithful  members  of  the  congress  of  1765,  with 
Edward  Eutledge  and  Middleton.  The  delegates 
elect  were  empowered  to  agree  to  a  suspension  of 
exports  as  well  as  imports.  In  due  time  the  house 
of  assembly,  meeting  at  eight  in  the  morning,  just 
half  an  hour  before  the  governor  could  send  to  pro- 
rogue them,  confirmed  these  proceedings  and  ratified 
the  choice  of  delegates.  "Don't  pay  for  an  ounce 
of  the  tea,"  was  the  reiterated  message  from  South 
Carolina. 


82  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  The  convention  of  Pennsylvania,  which  was  but 
^ — •  an  echo  of  the  opinion  of  Dickinson,  recommended 
an  indemnity  to  the  East  India  company,  dissuaded 
from  suspending  trade,  and  advised  the  gentler  me- 
thod of  a  firm  and  decent  claim  of  redress.  The  idea 
of  independence  they  disowned  and  utterly  abhorred. 
If  Britain  on  her  side  would  repeal  the  obnoxious 
acts,  they  were  ready  to  engage  their  obedience  to 
the  acts  of  navigation,  and  also  to  settle  an  annual 
revenue  on  the  king,  subject  to  the  control  of  par- 
liament. 

These  views,  which  were  intended  as  instructions 
from  the  people  to  the  men  who  might  be  chosen  to 
represent  them  in  congress,  Dickinson  accompanied 
with  a  most  elaborate  argument,  in  which  with  chill- 
ing erudition  the  rights  of  the  colonies  were  con- 
firmed by  citations  from  a  long  train  of  lawyers, 
philosophers,  poets,  statesmen,  and  divines,  from  the 
times  of  Sophocles  and  Aristotle  to  Beccaria  and 
Blackstone.  Tenderly  susceptible  to  the  ideas  of  jus- 
tice and  right,  he  refused  to  believe  that  a  British 
ministry  or  king  could  be  deaf  to  his  appeals. 
Willing  to  sacrifice  himself  and  his  own  estate,  he 
shrunk  only  from  perilling  the  fortunes  and  lives  of 
millions.  His  success  in  allaying  the  impassioned 
enthusiasm  of  patriotism  went  beyond  his  intentions. 
The  assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  which  was  suddenly 
called  together  on  the  eighteenth  of  July,  passed  him 
over  in  electing  their  delegates  to  the  continental 
congress,  and  preferred  Galloway  their  speaker, 
whose  loyalty  was  unsuspected. 

In  New  Jersey,  Witherspoon,  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  president  of  Princeton  college,  and  "  as  high 


AMERICA    RESOLVES    TO    MEET   IN    CONGRESS.  83 

a  son  of  liberty  as  any  man  in  America,"  met  the  CHAP. 
committee  at  New  Brunswick;  and  with  William  - — ^ 
Livingston  labored  to  instruct  their  delegates  that 
the  tea  should  not  be  paid  for.  The  matter  was  left 
to  the  general  congress,  to  which  William  Livingston 
was  chosen. 

In  New  Hampshire  the  members  of  its  conven- 
tion brought  with  them  little  stocks  of  money,  con- 
tributed by  the  several  towns  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  a  representation  in  congress.  The  inhabitants  of 
that  province  also  solemnized  their  action  by  keeping 
a  day  of  fasting  and  public  prayer.  Massachusetts 
did  the  same ;  and  Gage,  who  looked  with  stupid 
indifference  on  the  spectacle  of  thirteen  colonies 
organizing  themselves  as  one  people,  on  occasion  of 
the  fast,  issued  a  proclamation  against  "hypocrisy 
and  sedition." 

Meantime  New  York  had  grown  weary  of  dissen- 
sions. The  persons  nominated  for  congress  gave  in 
writing  a  satisfactory  profession  of  their  zeal  for 
liberty ; .  and  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  July,  the 
nomination  was  unanimously  ratified  by  the  inhab- 
itants. Yet  the  delegation  was  lukewarm  and  divided, 
leaving  Virginia  to  give  the  example  of  energy  and 
courage. 

Dunmore  had  issued  writs  for  an  assembly  ;  but 
the  delegates  from  the  different  counties  of  Virginia 
none  the  less  assembled  in  provincial  convention. 
Illness  detained  Jefferson  on  the  road,  but  he  sent  for 
consideration  a  paper  which  expressed  his  convictions 
and  distinctly  foreshadowed  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence. Enumerating  the  grievances  which  affected 
all  the  colonies,  he  made  a  special  complaint  of  a 


84  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  wrong  to  Virginia.  "  For  the  most  trifling  reasons," 
^— '  said  he,  "  and  sometimes  for  no  conceivable  reason  at 
July.'  a^'  kis  maJest7  has  rejected  laws  of  the  most  salu- 
tary tendency.  The  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  is 
the  great  object  of  desire  in  those  colonies,  where  it 
was  unhappily  introduced  in  their  infant  state.  But 
previous  to  the  enfranchisement  of  the  slaves  we 
have,  it  is  necessary  to  exclude  all  further  importa- 
tions from  Africa;  yet  our  repeated  attempts  to 
.  effect  this  by  prohibitions,  and  by  -imposing  duties 
which  might  amount  to  a  prohibition,  have  been 
hitherto  defeated  by  his  majesty's  negative;  thus 
preferring  the  immediate  advantage  of  a  few  British 
corsairs,  to  the  lasting  interests  of  the  American 
states,  and  to  the  rights  of  human  nature,  deeply 
wounded  by  this  infamous  practice."  The  words  of 
Jefferson  were  universally  approved;  and  the  con- 
vention  to  which  they  were  presented  by  Peyton 
Randolph  came  to  this  resolution :  "  After  the  first 
day  of  November  next,  we  will  neither  ourselves  im- 
port, nor  purchase  any  slave  or  slaves  imported  by 
any  other  person,  either  from  Africa,  the  West  Indies, 
or  any  other  place." 

On  the  affairs  of  Massachusetts  the  temper  of  the 
Virginians  ran  exceedingly  high.  "  An  innate  spirit 
of  freedom,"  such  were  the  words  of  Washington, 
"  tells  me  that  the  measures  which  the  administration 
are  most  violently  pursuing,  are  opposed  to  every 
principle  of  natural  justice."  He  was  certain  that  it 
was  neither  the  wish  nor  the  interest  of  any  govern- 
ment on  the  continent,  separately  or  collectively,  to 
set  up  independence,  but  he  rejected  indignantly  the 
claim  of  parliament,  and  saw  no  "reason  to  expect 


AMERICA    RESOLVES    TO    MEET    IN    CONGRESS  85 

any  thing  from  their  justice."  "The  crisis," he  said,  CHAP. 
"  is  arrived  when  we  must  assert  our  rights,  or  submit  — * — - 
to  every  imposition  that  can  be  heaped  upon  us,  till 
custom  and  use  shall  make  us  tame  and  abject  slaves." 
From  the  first  he  was  convinced  that  there  was  not 
u  any  thing  to  be  expected  from  petitioning."  "  Ought 
we  not,  then,"  he  exclaimed,  "  to  put  our  virtue  and 
fortitude  to  the  severest  test?"  Thus  Washington 
reasoned  privately  with  his  friends.  In  the  conven- 
tion, Richard  Henry  Lee  and  Patrick  Henry  were 
heard  with  such  delight  that  the  one  was  compared 
to  Cicero,  the  other  to  Demosthenes.  But  Washing- 
ton, who  never  was  able  to  see  distress  without  a 
desire  to  assuage  it,  made  the  most  effective  speech 
when  he  uttered  the  wish  to  "raise  one  thousand 
men,  subsist  them  at  his  own  expense,  and  march  at 
their  head  for  the  relief  of  Boston." 

The  resolves  and  instructions  of  Virginia  cor- 
responded to  his  spirit.  They  demanded  that  the 
restrictions  on  navigation  should  themselves  be  re- 
strained. Especially  were  they  incensed  at  the  threat 
of  Gage  to  use  the  deadly  weapon  of  constructive 
treason  against  such  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  as 
should  assemble  to  consider  of  their  grievances,  and 
form  associations  for  their  common  conduct ;  and 
they  voted  that  "  the  attempt  to  execute  this  illegal 
and  odious  proclamation,  would  justify  resistance  and 
reprisal." 

VOL.    VII.  £ 


CHAPTEE    VII. 

THE    CABINET    OF   LOUIS    SIXTEENTH. 
JULY-AUGUST,    1774. 

CHAP.  IN  France.  Louis  the  Sixteenth  had  selected  minis- 

VII 

*-^->  ters,  of  whom  a  part  only  were  disposed  to  take 
advantage  of  the  perplexities  of  England;  but  they 
were  the  more  likely  to  prevail  from  the  unsteadi- 
ness of  the  administration,  which  sprung  from  his 
own  character  and  made  his  life  a  long  equipoise 
between  right  intentions  and  executive  feebleness. 
His  countenance,  seeming  to  promise  probity,  betrayed 
irresolution.  In  manner  he  was  awkward  and  embar- 
rassed, and  even  at  his  own  court  ill  at  ease.  His 
turn  of  mind  was  serious,  inclining  even  to  sadness  ; 
and  his  appearance  in  public  did  not  accord  with  his 
station  or  his  youth.  He  had  neither  military  sci- 
ence, nor  martial  spirit,  nor  gallant  bearing ;  and  in 
the  eyes  of  a  warlike  nation,  which  interpreted  his 
torpid  languor  as  a  want  of  courage,  he  was  sure  to 
fall  into  contempt. 

In   the   conduct  of  affairs,  his   sphere   of  vision 
was  narrow ;  and  he  applied  himself  chiefly  to  details 


THE    CABINET    OF    LOUIS    SIXTEENTH.  87 

or  matters  of  little  importance.  Conforming  to  the  CHAP- 
public  wish,  he  began  by  dismissing  the  ministers  of  - — *^ 
the  late  king,  and  then  felt  the  need  of  a  guide. 
Marie  Antoinette  would  have  recalled  Choiseul,  the 
supporter  of  an  intimate  friendship  between  France 
and  Austria,  the  passionate  adversary  of  England,  the 
prophet  and  the  favorer  of  American  independence. 
But  filial  respect  restrained  the  Mng,  for  Choiseul 
had  been  his  father's  enemy.  He  turned  to  his 
aunts  for  advice ;  and  their  choice  fell  on  the  Count 
de  Maurepas  from  their  regard  to  his  experience, 
general  good  character,  and  independence  of  the  par- 
ties at  court. 

'Not  descended  from  the  old  nobility,  Maurepas 
belonged  to  a  family  which,  within  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  had  furnished  nine  secretaries  of  state. 
He  had  himself  held  office  in  the  last  days  of  Louis 
the  Fourteenth ;  and  had  been  sent  into  retirement 
by  Louis  the  Fifteenth  for  writing  verses  that  offended 
the  king's  mistress.  At  the  age  of  seventy-three,  and 
after  an  exile  of  twenty-five  years,  he  was  still  as  he 
had  been  in  youth,  polite,  selfish,  jealous,  superficial, 
and  frivolous.  Despising  gravity  of  manner  and  airs 
of  mystery  as  ridiculous,  and  incapable  of  serious 
passion  or  profound  reflection,  he  charmed  by  the 
courtesy  and  ease  of  his  conversation.  He  enjoyed 
the  present  moment,  and  was  careless  of  the  future 
which  he  was  not  to  share ;  taking  all  things  so  easily, 
that  age  did  not  wear  him  out.  Full  of  petty  artifice 
in  attack,  of  sly  dexterity  in  defence,  he  could  put 
aside  weighty  objections  by  mirth  and  laugh  even  at 
merit,  having  no  faith  in  virtues  that  were  difficult, 
and  deriding  the  love  of  country  as  a  vain  boast  or  a 


88  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  stratagem  to  gain  an  end.  With  all  the  patronage  of 
^-v— '  France  in  his  giffc,  he  took  from  the  treasury  only 
enough  to  meet  his  increased  expenses,  keeping  house 
with  well-ordered  simplicity,  and  at  his  death  leaving 
neither  debts  nor  savings.  Present  tranquillity  was 
his  object,  rather  than  honor  among  coming  genera- 
tions. He  was  naturally  liberal,  and  willing  that  the 
public  good  should  prevail ;  but  not  at  the  cost  of  his 
repose,  above  all,  not  at  the  risk  of  his  ascendency 
with  the  king.  A  jealousy  of  superior  talents  was 
his  only  ever  wakeful  passion.  He  had  no  malignity, 
and  found  no  pleasure  in  revenge ;  when  envy  led 
him  to  remove  a  colleague  who  threatened  to  become 
a  rival,  he  never  pursued  him  with  bitterness,  or  dis- 
missed him  to  exile.  To  foreign  ambassadors  he  paid 
the  attentions  due  to  their  rank ;  but  the  professions 
which  he  lavished  with  graceful  levity,  had  such  an 
ah1  of  nothingness,  that  no  one  ever  confided  in  them 
enough  to  gain  the  right  of  charging  him  seriously 
with  duplicity.  To  men  of  every  condition  he  never 
forgot  to  show  due  regard,  disguising  his  unfailing 
deference  to  rank  by  freedom  of  remark  and  gaiety. 
He  granted  a  favor  without  ever  showing  the  despot- 
ism of  a  benefactor;  and  he  softened  a  refusal  by 
reasons  that  were  soothing  to  the  petitioner's  self- 
love.  His  administration  was  sure  to  be  weak,  for  it 
was  his  maxim  never  to  hold  out  against  any  one  who 
had  power  enough  to  be  formidable,  and  he  wished 
to  please  alike  the  courtiers  and  public  opinion ;  the 
nobility  and  the  philosophers ;  those  who  stickled  for 
the  king's  absolute  sway,  and  those  who  clamored 
for  the  restoration  of  parliaments ;  those  who  wished 


THE    CABINET    OF    LOUIS    SIXTEENTH.  89 

a  cordial  understanding  with  England  and  those  who  CHAP. 
favored  her  insurgent  colonies. 

Louis  the  Sixteenth  was  looking  for  an  expe- 
rienced  and  firm  guide  to  correct  his  own  indecision  ; 
and  he  fell  upon  a  complacent,  well-mannered  old 
gentleman,  who  had  the  same  fault  with  himself,  and 
was  only  fit  to  give  lessons  in  etiquette,  or  enliven 
business  by  pleasantry.  Yet  the  king  retained  Mau- 
repas  as  minister  more  than  seven  years  without  a 
suspicion  of  his  incompetency.  No  statesman  of  his 
century  had  a  more  prosperous  old  age,  or  such  feli- 
city in  the  circumstances  of  his  death,  which  hap- 
pened at  the  moment  of  his  king's  greatest  domestic 
happiness  in  the  birth  of  a  son,  and  amidst  the  shouts 
of  France  for  the  most  important  victory  of  the  cen- 
tury, achieved  during  his  administration. 

Declining  a  special  department,  Maurepas,  as  the 
head  of  the  cabinet,  selected  his  own  associates, 
choosing  men  by  whom  he  feared  neither  to  be 
superseded  nor  eclipsed.  To  the  Count  de  Vergen- 
nes  was  assigned  the  department  of  foreign  affairs. 
The  veteran  statesman,  then  fifty-seven  years  old, 
was  of  plebeian  origin,  and  married  to  a  plebeian; 
unsupported  by  the  high  nobility  and  without  claims 
on  Austria  or  Marie  Antoinette.  His  father  had  been 
president  of  the  parliament  at  Dijon.  His  own  diplo- 
matic career  began  in  1740,  and  had  been  marked  by 
moderation,  vigilance,  and  success.  He  had  neither 
the  adventurous  daring,  nor  the  levity  of  Choiseul ; 
but  he  had  equal  acquaintance  with  courts,  equal  sen- 
sitiveness to  the  dignity  of  France,  and  greater  self- 
control.  He  was  distinguished  among  ministers  as  in- 
defatigably  laborious,  conducting  affairs  with  method, 

VOL.    VII.  8* 


90  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  rectitude,  and  clearness.     He  had  not  the  rapid  intui- 

VII  ' 

— r~  tions  of  genius,  but  his  character  was  firm,  his  mode 
lJni4  of  thinking  liberal,  and  he  loved  to  surround  himself 
with  able  men.  His  conversation  was  reserved ;  his 
manner  grave  and  coldly  polite.  As  he  served  a 
weak  king,  he  was  always  on  his  guard,  and  to  give 
a  categorical  answer  was  his  aversion.  Like  nearly 
every  Frenchman,  he  was  thoroughly  a  monarchist ; 
and  he  also  loved  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  whose  good 
opinion  he  gained  at  once  and  ever  retained.  Eleven 
years  before,-  he  had  predicted  that  the  conquest  of 
Canada  would  hasten  the  independence  of  British 
America,  and  he  was  now  from  vantage  ground  to 
watch  his  prophecy  come  true. 

The  philosophers  of  the  day,  like  the  king,  wished 
the  happiness  of  the  people,  and  public  opinion  re- 
quired that  they  should  be  represented  in  the  cabi- 
net. Maurepas  complied,  and  in  July,  1774,  the 
place  of  minister  of  the  marine  was  conferred  on  Tur- 
got,  whose  name  was  as  yet  little  known  at  Paris, 
and  whose  artlessness  made  him  even  less  dangerous 
as  a  rival  than  Vergennes.  "  I  am  told  he  never  goes 
to  mass,"  said  the  king,  doubtingly,  and  yet  consented 
to  the  appointment.  In  five  weeks,  Turgot  so  won 
upon  his  sovereign's  good  will,  that  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  ministry  of  finance.  This  was  the  wish 
of  all  the  philosophers;  of  D'Alembert,  Condorcet, 
Bailly,  La  Harpe,  Marmontel,  Thomas,  Condillac, 
Morellet,  and  Voltaire.  Nor  of  them  alone.  "  Tur- 
got," said  Malesherbes,  "  has  the  heart  of  L'Hopital, 
and  the  head  of  Bacon."  His  purity,  moreover,  gave 
*  him  clearsightedness  and  distinctness  of  purpose.  At 
a  moment  when  everybody  confessed  that  reform 


THE    CABINET    OP    LOUIS    SIXTEENTH.  91 

was  essential,  it  seemed  a  national  benediction  that  CHAP 
a  youthful  king  should  intrust  the  task  of  amend-  — ^~ 
ment  to  a  statesman,  who  preserved  his  purity  of 
nature  in  a  libertine  age,  and  joined  unquestioned 
probity  to  comprehensive  intelligence  and  administra- 
tive experience. 

The  annual  public  expenses  largely  exceeded  the 
revenue,  and  extortions  to  meet  the  deficit  fell  on 
the  humble  and  the  weak.  Yet  the  chief  financial 
officers  grew  enormously  rich,  and  were  adepts  in 
refined  luxury,  masking  their  revels  by  an  affectation 
of  philosophy.  "  "We  are  well  off,"  they  would  say ; 
"  of  what  use  is  reform  ? "  The  land  tax,  the  poll 
tax,  the  best  tithes  of  the  produce  for  the  priest, 
twentieths,  military  service,  taxes  on  Consumption, 
labor  on  the  highways,  crushed  the  peasantry.  The 
indirect  taxes  were  farmed  out  to  commissioners,  who 
had  power  to  enforce  extortionate  demands  by  sum- 
marily sending  the  demurrers  to  the  galleys  or  the 
scaffold. 

The  protective  system  superintended  the  use  of 
capital.  The  right  to  labor  was  a  privilege  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  the  finances,  and  labor  itself  was  so 
bound  in  the  meshes  of  innumerable  rules,  that 
manufactures  grew  up  timidly  under  the  dangerous 
favor  of  arbitrary  encouragement.  The  progress  of 
agriculture  was  still  hindered  by  the  servitudes  of  the 
soil.  Each  little  farm  was  in  bondage  under  a  com- 
plicated system  of  irredeemable  dues,  to  roads  and 
canals ;  to  the  bakehouse  and  the  brewery  of  the 
lord  of  the  manor  ;  to  his  winepress  and  his  mill ;  to 
his  tolls  at  the 'river,  the  market,  or  the  fair;  to 
ground  rents,  and  quit  rents,  and  fines  on  alienation. 


92  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  The  game  laws  let  in  the  wild  beasts  and  birds  to 
fatten  on  the  growth  of  the  poor  man's  fields  ;  and 
a^ter  k*s  harvest  provincial  custom-houses  blocked 
domestic  commerce  ;  the  export  of  corn,  and  even  its 
free  circulation  within  the  realm,  was  prohibited ;  so 
that  one  province  might  waste  from  famine,  and 
another  want  a  market  for  its  superfluous  pro- 
duction. 

Out  of  this  sad  state  Turgot  undertook  to  lift  his 
country.  "  It  is  to  you  personally,"  said  he  to  Louis 
the  Sixteenth,  "  to  the  man,  honest,  just,  and  good, 
rather  than  to  the  king,  that  I  give  myself  up.  You 
have  confided  to  me  the  happiness  of  your  people, 
and  the  care  of  making  you  and  your  authority 
beloved  ;  but  I  shall  have  to  combat  those  who  gain 
by  abuses,  the  prejudices  against  all  reform,  the 
majority  of  the  court,  and  every  solicitor  of  favors. 
I  shall  sacrifice  myself  for  the  people ;  but  I  may 
incur  even  their  hatred  by  the  very  measures  I  shall 
take  to  prevent  their  distress.""  "  Have  no  fear,"  said 
the  king,  pressing  the  hand  of  his  new  comptroller- 
general  ;  "  I  shall  always  support  you." 

The  exigencies  of  his  position  made  Turgot  a  par- 
tisan of  the  central  unity  of  power  ;  he  was  no  friend 
to  revolutions ;  he  would  have  confined  the  parlia- 
ments of  France  to  their  simple  office  as  judges ;  he 
had  no  predilection  for  states  general,  or  a  system 
like  that  of  England.  To  unobstructed  power,  en- 
lightened by  advice,  he  looked  for  good  laws,  and  a 
vigorous  administration.  He  would  have  no  bank- 
ruptcy, whether  avowed  or  disguised  ;  no  increase  of 
taxes,  no  new  loans ;  and  the  king  solemnly  accepted 
his  financial  system. 


THE  CABINET  OF  LOUIS  SIXTEENTH.  90 

The  vices  of  the  'nobility  had  demoralized  the  CHAP. 
army ;  from  the  navy  there  was  also  little  promise, 
for  that  department  was  intrusted  to  Sartine,  who 
had  "been  trained  to  public  life  only  as  an  officer  of 
police.  The  warlike  nation  had  never  had  so  unwar- 
like  an  administration.  Maurepas  had  been  feeble, 
even  from  his  youth ;  the  king  was  neither  a  soldier, 
nor  capable  of  becoming,  one. 

Yet  in  France  the  traditional  policy,  which  re- 
garded England  as  a  natural  enemy,  and  sought  a 
benefit  to  the  one  country  by  wounding  the  other, 
was  kept  alive  by  the  Bourbon  princes ;  by  the 
nobles  who  longed  to  efface  the  shame  of  the  last 
treaty  of  peace  ;  by  the  farmers  of  the  revenue,  who 
were  sure  to  derive  rapid  fortunes  from  the  necessi- 
ties of  war ;  by  the  ministers  who  brooded  over  the 
perfidious  conduct  of  the  British  government  in  1755 
with  a  distrust  that  never  slumbered.  France,  there- 
fore, bent  its  ear  to  catch  the  earliest  surging  of  Amer- 
ican discontent.  This  it  discerned  in  the  instructions 
from  the  congress  of  Virginia  to  its  delegates  in  the 
continental  congress.  "  They  are  the  first,"  observed 
the  statesmen  of  France,  "  which  propose  to  restrain 
the  act  of  navigation  itself,  and  give  pledges  to  op- 
pose force  by  force." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

HOW  THE  MANDAMUS  COUNCILLORS  WERE  DEALT  WITH. 
AUGUST,  1774. 

CHAP.  ON  Saturday,  the  sixth  day  of  August,  Gage  received 
an  authentic  copy  of  the  act  of  parliament  "  for  the 
k^ter  regulating  the  province  of  the  Massachusetts 
bay,"  introduced  by  Lord  North  in  April,  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  assented  to  by  the  king  on  the  twentieth 
of  May.  Buckingham  and  his  friends  have  left  on 
the  records  of  the  house  of  lords  their  protest  against 
the  act,  "  because,"  said  they,  "  a  definitive  legal 
offence,  by  which  a  forfeiture  of  the  charter  is  incur- 
red, has  not  been  clearly  stated  and  fully  proved ; 
neither  has  notice  of  this  adverse  proceeding  been 
given  to  the  parties  affected ;  neither  have  they  been 
heard  in  their  own  defence ;  and  because  the  gov- 
ernor and  council  are  intrusted  with  powers,  with 
which  the  British  constitution  has  not  trusted  his 
majesty  and  privy  council,  so  that  the  lives  and  prop- 
erties of  the  subjects  are  put  into  their  hands  without 
control." 

The  principle  of  the  statute  was  the  concentration 


FATE    OF   THE    MANDAMUS    COUNCILLORS.  95 

of  the  executive  power,  including  the  courts  of  justice,  CHAP. 
in  the  hands  of  the  royal  governor.  Without  pre- 
vious  notice  to  Massachusetts  and  without  a  hearing, 
it  arbitrarily  took  away  rights  and  liberties  which 
the  people  had  enjoyed  from  the  foundation  of  the 
colony,  except  in  the  evil  days  of  James  the  Second, 
and  which  had  been  renewed  in  the  charter  from 
William  and  Mary.  That  charter  was  coeval  with 
the  great  English  revolution,  had  been  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  colonists  for  more  than  eighty 
years,  and  was  associated  in  their  minds  with  every 
idea  of  English  liberty  and  loyalty  to  the  English 
crown.  Under  its  provisions  the  councillors,  twenty- 
eight  in  number,  had  been  annually  chosen  by  a  con- 
vention of  the  council  for  the  former  year  and  the 
assembly,  subject  only  to  the  negative  of  the  gov- 
ernor; henceforward  they  were  to  be  not  less  than 
twelve  and  not  more  than  thirty-six,  were  to  receive 
their  appointments  from  the  king,  and  were  remov- 
able at  his  pleasure.  The  governor  received  author- 
ity, without  consulting  his  council,  to  appoint  and  to 
remove  all  judges  of  the  inferior  courts,  justices  of 
the  peace,  and  all  officers  belonging  to  the  council  and 
the  courts  of  justice.  The  sheriffs  were  changeable 
by  the  governor  and  council  as  often  and  for  such 
purposes  as  they  should  deem  expedient.  In  case  of 
a  vacancy,  the  governor  was  himself  to  appoint  the 
chief  justice  and  judges  of  the  superior  court,  who 
were  to  hold  their  commissions  during  the  pleasure 
of  the  king,  and  depend  on  his  good-will  for  the 
amount  and  the  payment  of  their  salaries.  That 
nothing  might  be  wanting  to  executive  power,  the 
right  of  selecting  juries  was  taken  from  the  inhabit- 


96  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ants  and  freeholders  of  the  towns,  and  conferred  on 

VIII 

— r^  the  sheriffs  of  the  several  counties  within  the  prov- 
ince.  This  regulating  act,  moreover,  uprooted  the 
dearest  institution  of  New  England,  whose  people, 
from  the  first  settlement  of  the  country,  had  been 
accustomed  in  their  town  meetings  to  transact  all 
business  that  touched  them  most  nearly  as  fathers,  as 
freemen,  and  as  Christians.  There  they  adopted  local 
taxes  to  keep  up  their  free-schools  ;  there  they  regu- 
lated all  the  municipal  concerns  of  the  year ;  there 
they  instructed  the  representatives  of  their  choice ; 
and  as  the  limits  of  the  parish  and  the  town  were 
usually  the  same,  there  most  of  them  took  measures 
for  the  invitation  and  support  of  ministers  of  the  gos- 
pel in  their  congregations ;  there,  whenever  they  were 
called  together  by  their  selectmen,  they  were  accus- 
tomed to  express  their  sentiments  on  all  subjects  con- 
nected with  their  various  interests,  their  rights  and 
liberties,  and  their  religion.  The  regulating  act, 
sweeping  away  the  provincial  law  which  had  received 
the  approval  of  William  ancj.  Mary,  permitted  two 
meetings  annually  in  which  town  officers  and  repre- 
sentatives might  be  chosen,  but  no  other  matter  be 
introduced ;  every  other  assembling  of  a  town  was 
forbidden  except  by  the  written  leave  of  the  gov- 
ernor, and  then  only  for  business  expressed  in  that 
leave.  A  wise  ruler  respects  the  feelings,  usages,  and 
opinions  of  the  governed.  The  king  trampled  under 
foot  the  affections,  customs,  laws,  and  privileges  of  the 
people  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  willing  to  spare 
them  an  explicit  consent  to  the  power  of  parliament 
in  all  cases  whatever;  but  he  required  proof  that 
Boston  had  compensated  the  East  India  company, 


FATE    OF    THE    MANDAMUS    COUNCILLORS.  97 

that  the  tax  on  tea  could  be  safely  collected,  and  CHAP. 
that  the  province  would  peacefully  acquiesce  in  the 
change  of  its  charter. 

With  the  regulating  act  Gage  received  copies  of 
two  other  acts  which  were  to  facilitate  its  enforce- 
ment. He  was  surrounded  by  an  army  ;  had  been 
enjoined  repeatedly  to  arrest  the  leading  patriots, 
even  at  the  risk  of  producing  a  riot ;  and  had  been 
instructed  that  even  in  time  of  peace  he  could  of 
himself  order  the  troops  to  fire  upon  the  people.  By 
one  of  the  two  additional  acts,  he  was  authorized  to 
quarter  his  army  in  towns ;  by  the  other,  to  transfer 
to  another  colony  or  to  Great  Britain  any  persons 
informed  against  or  indicted  for  crimes  committed  in 
supporting  the  revenue  laws  or  suppressing  riots. 

The  regulating  act  complicated  the  question  be- 
tween America  and  Great  Britain.  The  country, 
under  the  advice  of  Pennsylvania,  might  have  indem- 
nified the  East  India  company ;  might  have  obtained 
by  importunity  the  repeal  of  the  tax  on  tea ;  or  might 
have  borne  the  duty  as  it  had  borne  that  on  wine ; 
but  parliament,  after  ten  years  of  premeditation,  had 
exercised  the  power  to  abrogate  the  laws,  and  to 
change  the  charter  of  a  province  without  its  con- 
sent ;  and  on  this  arose  the  conflict  of  the  American 
revolution.  The  act  went  into  effect  on  the  moment 
of  its  being  received ;  and  of  necessity  precipitated  the 
choice  between  submission  and  resistance.  Within  a 
week,  eleven  of  the  mandamus  councillors  took  the 
oath  of  office,  and  were  followed  in  a  few  days  by 
fourteen  more.  They  were  persuaded  that  the  pro- 
vince could  by  no  possibility  hold  out ;  the  promise 
of  assistance  from  other  colonies  was  scoffed  at  as  a 

VOL.    VII.  9 


98  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  delusion,  intended  only  to  keep  up  the  spirit  of  the 
— ^  mob.  No  assembly  existed  in  the  province  to  remon- 
'  strate ;  and  Gage  might  delay  or  wholly  omit  to  send 
out  writs  for  a  new  election.  But  a  people  who  were 
trained  to  read  and  write ;  to  discuss  all  political 
questions,  privately  and  in  public ;  to  strive  to  ex- 
hibit in  their  lives  the  Christian  system  of  ethics,  the 
beauty  of  holiness,  and  the  unselfish  nature  of  virtue ; 
to  reason  on  the  great  ends  of  God  in  creation ;  to 
believe  in  their  own  immortality  ;  and  to  venerate 
their  ancestry  as  above  all  others  pure,  enlightened, 
and  free,  could  never  forego  the  civil  rights  which 
were  their  most  cherished  inheritance. 

The  committee  of  Boston,  exasperated  by  a  mili- 
tary camp  in  the  heart  of  their  town,  acknowledged 
themselves  unable  to  deliberate  "  as  the  perils  and 
exigencies  of  the  times  might  demand."  "Being 
stationed  by  Providence  in  the  front  rank  of  the 
conflict,"  such  was  their  letter  to  all  the  other 
towns  in  the  province,  "  we  trust  we  shall  not  be  left 
by  Heaven  to  do  any  thing  derogatory  to  our  com- 
mon liberties,  unworthy  of  the  fame  of  our  ancestors, 
or  inconsistent  with  our  former  professions.  Though 
surrounded  with  a  large  body  of  armed  men,  who, 
having  the  sword,  have  also  our  blood  in  their  hands, 
we  are  yet  undaunted.  To  you,  our  brethren  and 
dear  companions  in  the  cause  of  God,  we  apply, 
From  you  we  have  received  that  countenance  and 
aid  which  have  strengthened  our  hands,  and  that 
bounty,  which  hath  occasioned  smiles  on  the  face  of 
distress.  To  you,  therefore,  we  look  for  that  advice 
and  example,  which,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  shall 
save  us  from  destruction." 


FATE    OF    THE    MANDAMUS    COUNCILLORS.  99 

The  earnest  message  was  borne  to  the  northern  CHAP. 
border  of  the  province,  where  the  brooks  run  to  the  v— Y-^ 
Nashua,  and  the  upland  farms  yielded  but  scanty  re- 
turns  to  the  hardest  toil.  The  husbandmen  in  that 
region  had  already  sent  many  loads  of  rye  to  the 
poor  of  Boston.  In  the  coming  storm  they  clustered 
round  William  Prescott,  of  Pepperell,  who  stood  as 
firm  as  Monadnoc,  that  rose  in  sight  of  his  home- 
stead ;  and  on  the  day  after  the  first  mandamus  coun- 
cillors took  their  oath  of  office,  they  put  their  soul  into 
his  words  as  he  wrote  for  them  to  the  men  of  Boston : 
"Be  not  dismayed  nor  disheartened  in  this  day  of 
great  trials.  We  heartily  sympathize  with  you,  and 
are  always  ready  to  do  all  in  our  power  for  your 
support,  comfort,  and  relief;  knowing  that  Provi- 
dence has  placed  you  where  you  must  stand  the  first 
shock.  We  consider  we  are  all  embarked  in  one  bot- 
tom, and  must  sink  or  swim  together.  We  think  if 
we  submit  to  these  regulations,  all  is  gone.  Our 
forefathers  passed  the  vast  Atlantic,  spent  their  blood 
and  treasure,  that  they  might  enjoy  their  liberties, 
both  civil  and  religious,  and  transmit  them  to  their 
posterity.  Their  children  have  waded  through  seas 
of  difficulty,  to  leave  us  free  and  happy  in  the  en- 
joyment of  English  privileges.  Now  if  we  should 
give  them  up,  can  our  children  rise  up  and  call  us 
blessed  ?  Is  a  glorious  death  in  defence  of  our  liber- 
ties better  than  a  short  infamous  life,  and  our  memo- 
ries to  be  had  in  detestation  to  the  latest  posterity  ? 
Let  us  all  be  of  one  heart,  and  stand  fast  in  the  liber- 
ties wherewith  Christ  has  made  us  free ;  and  may  he 
of  his  infinite  mercy  grant  us  deliverance  out  of  all 
our  troubles."  Such  were  the  cheering  words  of 


100  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  Prescott  and  his  companions,  and  they  never  forgot 

— ^L  their  pledge. 

1774.  Everywhere  the  rural  population  of  Massachu- 
setts were  anxiously  weighing  the  issues  in  which  they 
were  involved.  One  spirit  moved  through  them 
all.  Prom  the  hills  of  Berkshire  to  the  Penobscot, 
they  debated  the  great  question  of  resistance  as 
though  God  were  hearkening  ;  and  they  took  counsel 
reverently  with  their  ministers,  and  the  aged,  the 
pious,  and  the  brave  in  their  villages.  Adjoining 
towns  held  conferences.  The  shire  of  Worcester  in 
August  set  the  example  of  a  county  congress,  which 
disclaimed  the  jurisdiction  of  the  British  house  of 
commons,  asserted  the  exclusive  right  of  the  colonies 
to  originate  laws  respecting  themselves,  rested  their 
duty  of  allegiance  on  the  charter  of  the  province,  and 
declared  the  violation  of  that  charter  a  dissolution  of 
their  union  with  Britain. 

Thomas  Gardner,  a  Cambridge  farmer,  promised 
a  similar  convention  of  the  county  of  Middlesex. 
"  Friends  and  brethren,"  he  wrote  to  Boston,  as  if  at 
once  to  allay  anxiety  and  prophesy  his  own  approach- 
ing end,  "  the  time  is  come  that  every  one  that  has  a 
tongue  and  an  arm  is  called  upon  by  their  country 
to  stand  forth  in  its  behalf.  I  consider  the  call  as  the 
call  of  God,  and  desire  to  be  all  obedience.  The 
people  will  choose  rather  to  fall  gloriously  in  the 
cause  of  their  country  than  meanly  submit  to  slavery." 
The  passion  for  liberty  was  felt  to  be  so  hallowed, 
that  in  a  land,  remarkable  for  piety,  a  father  of  a 
family  in  his  last  hour  would  call  his  sons  about  his 
death-bed  and  charge  them  on  his  blessing  to  love 
freedom  more  than  life. 


FATE    OF    THE    MANDAMUS    COUNCILLORS.  101 

In  June  there  had  been  a  review  of  the  Boston  CHAP. 

VIII. 

regiment.  The  patriots  speculated  on  the  total  num-  — ^ 
ber  of  the  militia.  After  searching  the  rolls  of  the  V74' 
several  towns,  the  population  of  the  province  was 
estimated  at  four  hundred  thousand  souls,  and  the 
number  of  men  between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of 
age,  at  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand,  most 
of  whom  possessed  arms,  and  were  expert  in  their 
use.  There  could  be  no  general  muster ;  but  during 
the  summer,  the  drum  and  fife  were  heard  in  every 
hamlet,  and  the  several  companies  paraded  for  dis-. 
cipline.  One  day  in  August,  Gage  revoked  Hancock's 
commission  in  the  Boston  cadets ;  and  that  company 
resented  the  insult  by  returning  the  king's  standard 
and  disbanding. 

Putnam,  of  Connecticut,  famous  for  service  near 
Lake  George  and  Ticonderoga,  before  the  walls  of 
Havana,  and  far  up  the  lakes  against  Pontiac,  a  pioneer 
of  emigration  to  the  southern  banks  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  oracle  of  all  patriot  circles  in  his  neighbor- 
hood, o-ode  to  Boston  with  one  hundred  and  thirty 
sheep,  as  a  gift  from  the  parish  of  Brooklyn.  The 
"  old  hero  "  became  Warren's  guest,  and  every  one's 
favorite.  The  officers  whom  he  visited  on  Boston 
Common  bantered  him  about  coming  down  to  fight. 
"Twenty  ships  of  the  line  and  twenty  regiments," 
said  Major  Small,  "may  be  expected  from  England 
in  case  a  submission  is  not  speedily  made  by  Boston." 
"  If  they  come,"  said  the  veteran,  "  I  am  ready  to 
treat  them  as  enemies." 

The  growing  excitement  attracted  to  New  England 
Charles  Lee,  the  restless  officer  whom  the  Five  Na- 
tions had  named  the  Boiling  "Water.    As  aide-de-camp 
VOL  vn.        9* 


102  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  to  the  king  of  Poland,  he  assumed  the  rank  of  a  ma- 

VIII. 

»  —  r^  jor-general,  which  on  occasion  of  his  visit  was  univer- 


ac^nowledged;  so  that  of  all  who  were  likely 
to  draw  the  sword  for  America,  he  had  the  prece- 
dence in  military  rank.  He  paid  court  to  the  patriots 
of  Massachusetts,  and  left  them  confident  of  his  aid 
in  the  impending  struggle.  He  on  his  part  saw  in 
the  New  England  yeomanry  the  best  materials  for 
an  army. 

Meantime  the  delegates  of  Massachusetts  to  the 
general  congress  were  escorted  "by  great  numbers  as 
far  as  Watertown,  where  many  had  gathered  to  bid 
them  a  solemn  and  affectionate  farewell.  As  they 
reached  Connecticut  river,  they  received  a  letter  of 
advice  from  the  great  patriot  of  Northampton.  "  We 
must  fight,"  wrote  Hawley,  "  we  must  fight,  if  we 
cannot  otherwise  rid  ourselves  of  British  taxation. 
The  form  of  government  enacted  for  us  by  the  Brit- 
ish parliament  is  evil  against  right,  utterly  intolerable 
to  every  man  who  has  any  idea  or  feeling  of  right  or 
liberty.  There  is  not  heat  enough  yet  for  battle; 
constant  and  negative  resistance  will  increase  it. 
There  is  not  military  skill  enough  ;  that  is  improving 
and  must  be  encouraged.  Fight  we  must  finally,  un- 
less Britain  retreats.  But  it  is  of  infinite  consequence 
that  victory  be  the  end  of  hostilities.  If  we  get  to 
fighting  before  necessary  dispositions  are  made  for  it, 
we  shall  be  conquered  and  all  will  be  lost  for  ever.  A 
clear  plan  for  an  adequate  supply  of  arms  and  mili- 
tary stores  must  be  devised.  This  is  the  main  thing. 
Men,  in  that  case,  will  not  be  wanting.  Our  salvation 
depends  upon  a  persevering  union.  Every  grievance 
of  any  one  colony  must  be  held  as  a  grievance  to  the 


FATE    OF    THE    MANDAMUS    COUNCILLORS.  103 

whole,  and  some  plan  be  settled  for  a  continuation  of  CHAP. 

fi  i  m  i         J          VIIL 

congresses,  even  though  congresses  will  soon  be  de-  ^ — 
clared  by  parliament  to  be  high  treason." 

Hawley  spoke  the  genuine  sentiments  of  western 
Massachusetts.  When  on  Tuesday,  the  sixteenth  of 
August,  the  judges  of  the  inferior  court  of  Hampshire 
met  at  Great  Barrington,  it  was  known  that  the  reg- 
ulating act  had  received  the  royal  approval.  Before 
noon  the  town  was  filled  with  people  of  the  county 
and  five  hundred  men  from  Connecticut,  armed  with 
clubs  and  staves.  Suffering  the  courts  of  justice  to 
sit,  seemed  a  recognition  of  the  act  of  parliament,  and 
the  chief  judge  was  forced  to  plight  his  honor  that 
he  and  his  associates  would  do  no  business.  On  the 
rumor  that  Gage  meditated  employing  a  part  of  his 
army  to  execute  the  new  statute  at  Worcester,  the 
inhabitants  of  that  town  purchased  and  manufac- 
tured arms,  cast  musket-balls,  provided  powder  for 
the  occasion,  and  threatened  openly  to  fall  upon  any 
body  of  soldiers  who  should  attack  them.* 

The  mandamus  councillors  began  to  give  way. 
Williams  of  Hatfield  refused  to  incur  certain  ruin 
by  accepting  his  commission;  so  did  Worthington 
of  Springfield.  Those  who  accepted  dared  not  give 
advice. 

Boston  held  town  meetings  as  before.  Gage  re- 
minded the  selectmen  of  the  act  of  parliament,  re- 
stricting town  meetings  without  the  governor's  leave. 
"It  is  only  an  adjourned  one,"  said  the  selectmen. 
"  By  such  means,"  said  Gage,  "  you  may  keep  your 
meeting  alive  these  ten  years."  He  brought  the  sub- 


104  AMERICAN   INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ject  before  the  new  council.  "  It  is  a  point  of  law," 
^^  said  they,  "  and  should  be  referred  to  the  crown  law- 
lAug.  yers."  He  asked  their  concurrence  in  removing  a 
sheriff.  "  The  act  of  parliament,"  they  replied,  "  con- 
fines the  power  of  removal  to  the  governor  alone." 
Several  members  gave  an  account  of  the  frenzy 
which  was  sweeping  from  Berkshire  over  the  prov- 
ince, and  might  reach  them  collectively  even  in  the 
presence  of  the  governor.  "  If  you  value  your  life,  I 
advise  you  not  to  return  home  at  present,"  was  the 
warning  received  by  Ruggles  from  the  town  of  Hard- 
wick,  whose  freemen  with  those  of  New  Braintree 
and  of  Greenwich  so  resented  his  accepting  a  place 
in  the  council,  that  they  vowed  he  should  never  again 
pass  the  great  bridge  of  the  town  alive. 

By  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  twenty -sixth, 
more  than  two  thousand  men  marched  in  companies 
to  the  common  in  Worcester,  where  they  forced  Tim- 
othy Paine  to  walk  through  their  ranks  with  his  hat 
off  as  far  as  the  centre  of  their  hollow  square,  and 
read  a  written  resignation  of  his  seat  at  the  council 
board.  A  large  detachment  then  moved  to  Rutland  to 
deal  with  Murray.  The  next  day  at  noon  Wilder  of 
Templeton  and  Holden  of  Princeton  brought  up  their 
companies,  and  by  three  in  the  afternoon,  about  fifteen 
hundred  men  had  assembled,  most  of  them  armed 
with  bludgeons.  But  Murray  had  escaped  on  the 
previous  evening,  just  before  the  sentries  were  set 
round  his  house1  and  along  the  roads ;  they  therefore 
sent  him  a  letter  requiring  him  to  resign.  The  tem- 
per of  the  people  brooked  no  division ;  they  held 
every  person  that  would  not  join  them  an  enemy  to 
his  country.  "The  consequences  of  your  proceedings 


FATE    OF    THE    MANDAMUS    COUNCILLORS.  105 

will  be  rebellion,  confiscation  and  death  "  said  the  CHAP. 

VIII. 

younger  Murray;  and  his  words  were  as  oil  to  the  ^~^i 
flame.  "  No  consequences,"  they  replied  to  him,  "  are 
so  dreadful  to  a  free  people  as  that  of  being  made 
slaves."  "This,"  wrote  he  to  his  brother,  "is  not  the 
language  of  the  common  people  only ;  those  that  have 
heretofore  sustained  the  fairest  character  are  the 
warmest  in  this  matter ;  and  among  the  many  friends 
you  have  heretofore  had,  I  can  scarcely  mention  any 
to  you  now." 

One  evening  in  August  the  farmers  of  Union  in 
Connecticut  found  Willard  of  Lancaster,  Massachu- 
setts,' within  their  precinct.  They  kept  watch  over 
him  during  the  night,  and  the  next  morning  five  hun- 
dred men  would  have  taken  him  to  the  county  jail ; 
but  after  a  march  of  six  miles  he  begged  forgiveness 
of  all  honest  men  for  having  taken  the  oath  of  office, 
and  promised  never  to  sit  or  act  in  council. 

The  people  of  Plymouth  were  grieved  that  George 
Watson,  their  respected  townsman,  was  willing  to  act 
under  his  appointment.  On  the  first  Lord's  day  after 
his  purpose  was  known,  as  soon  as  he  took  his  seat  in 
meeting,  his  neighbors  and  friends  put  on  their  hats 
before  the  congregation  and  walked  out  of  the  house. 
The  extreme  public  indignity  was  more  than  he  could 
bear.  As  they  passed  his  pew,  he  hid  his  face  by 
bending  his  head  over  his  cane,  and  determined  to 
resign.  Of  thirty  six  who  received  the  king's  summons 
as  councillors,  more  than  twenty  declined  to  obey 
them  or  revoked  their  acceptance.  The  rest  fled  in 
terror  to  the  army  at  Boston,  and  even  there  could 
not  hide  their  sense  of  shame. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

MASSACHUSETTS  DEFEATS  THE  REGULATING  ACT. 
AUGUST,  1774. 

CHAP.  THE  congressional  delegates  from  Massachusetts,  con 
>— r-~  secrated  by  their  office  as  her  suppliant  ambassadors 
*n  ^e  ^ay  °^  ^er  distress,  were  welcomed  everywhere 
on  their  journey  with  hospitable  feasts  and  tears  of 
.sympathy.  No  governor  in  the  pride  of  office  was 
ever  attended  with  fnore  assiduous  solicitude ;  no 
general  returning  in  triumph  with  sincerer  love. 
The  men  of  Hartford,  after  giving  pledges  to  abide 
by  the  resolutions  of  the  congress,  accompanied  them  to 
Middletown,  from  which  place  they  were  escorted  by 
carriages  and  a  cavalcade.  The  bells  of  New  Haven 
were  set  ringing  as  they  drew  near,  and  those  who 
had  not  gone  out  to  meet  them,  thronged  the  win- 
dows and  doors  to  gaze.  There  they  were  encour- 
aged by  Roger  Sherman,  whom  solid  sense  and  the 
power  of  clear  analysis  were  to  constitute  one  of  the 
master  builders  of  our  republic.  "  The  parliament 
of  Great  Britain,"  said  he,  "  can  rightfully  make 
laws  for  America  in  no  case  whatever."  The  free- 


MASSACHUSETTS    DEFEATS    THE    REGULATING    ACT.  107 

holders  of  Albemarle  county,  in  Virginia,  had  a  CHAP. 
month  earlier  expressed  the  same  conclusion,  and,  in 
the  language  of  Jefferson,  claimed  to  hold  the  privi- 
lege  of  exemption  from  the  authority  of  every  other 
legislature  than  their  own  as  one  of  the  common 
rights  of  mankind. 

After  resting  one  night  at  New  Haven,  and  visit- 
ing the  grave  of  the  regicide  Dixwell,  the  envoys 
continued  on  their  way.  As  they  reached  the  Hud- 
son, they  found  that  the  British  ministry  had  failed 
to  allure,  to  intimidate,  or  to  divide  New  York.  A 
federative  union  of  all  the  English  colonies,  under  the 
sovereignty  of  the  British  king,  had  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century  formed  the  aspiration  of  its  ablest  men, 
who  long  remained  confident  of  the  ultimate  consum- 
mation of  their  hopes.  The  great  design  had  been 
repeatedly  promoted  by  the  legislature  of  the  pro- 
vince. The  people  wished  neither  to  surrender 
liberty,  nor  to  dissolve  their  connection  with  the 
crown  of  England.  The  possibility  of  framing  an 
independent  republic  with  one  jurisdiction  from  the 
far  North  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  the  Atlantic 
indefinitely  to  the  West,  was  a  vision  of  which  nothing 
in  the  history  of  man  could  promise  the  realization. 
Lord  Kames,  the  friend  of  Franklin,  though  he  was 
persuaded  that  the  separation  of  the  British  colonies 
was  inevitably  approaching,  affirmed  that  their  po- 
litical union  was  impossible.  Prudent  men  long  re- 
garded the  establishment  of  a  confederacy  of  widely 
extended  territories,  as  a  doubtful  experiment,  except 
under  the  moderating  influence  of  a  permanent  ex- 
ecutive. That  the  colonies,  if  disconnected  from  Eng- 
land, would  fall  into  bloody  dissensions  among  them- 


108  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  selves,  had  been  the  anxious  fear  of  Otis  of  Massa- 

IX. 

• — r^  chusetts  ;  and  was  now  the  apprehension  of  Philip 
Livingston  of  New  York.  Union,  with  the  security 
of  all  constitutional  rights,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
British  king,  was  still  the  purpose  of  Jay  and  his 
intimate  associates.  This  policy  had  brought  all 
classes  together,  and  loyal  men  who,  like  William 
Smith,  were  its  advocates,  passed  for  "  consistent,  un- 
shaken friends  to  their  country  and  her  liberties." 
The  community  did  not  as  yet  know  with  what 
sullen  passion  the  idea  had  been  trampled  under  foot 
by  the  British  ministry,  nor  how  it  was  hated  by  the 
British  king ;  and  as  yet  prudence  suppressed  every 
allusion  to  an  "  appeal "  to  arms.  But  the  appeal 
was  nearer  at  hand  than  the  most  sagacious  believed. 
The  last  Tuesday  in  August  was  the  day  for  hold- 
ing  the  supreme  court  in  Boston ;  Oliver,  the  im- 
peached chief  justice,  was  to  preside  ;  and  in  the 
conduct  of  business  to  conform  for  the  first  time  to 
the  new  act  of  parliament.  The  day  was  to  decide 
whether  Massachusetts  would  submit  to  the  regulat- 
ing act ;  and  Gage,  who  thought  it  might  be  neces- 
sary for  a  part  of  his  army  to  escort  the  judges  in 
their  circuit  as  far  as  Worcester,  anticipated  no  oppo- 
sition to  organizing  the  court  in  the  heart  of  the  gar- 
risoned town.  But  neither  he  nor  his  employers  had 
computed  the  power  of  resistance  in  a  community 
where  the  great  mass  is  inflamed  with  love  for  a 
sacred  cause. 

Before  Samuel  Adams  departed,  he  had  concerted 
the  measures  by  which  Suffolk  county  would  be  best 
able  to  bring  the  wrongs  of  the  town  and  the  pro- 
vince before  the  general  congress;  and  he  left  the 


MASSACHUSETTS    DEFEATS    THE    REGULATING    ACT.  109 

direction  with  Warren,  whose  impetuous  fearlessness  CHAP. 
was  tempered  by  self-possession,  gentleness,  and  good 
sense,  and  who  had  reluctantly  become  convinced 
that  alj  connection  with  the  British  parliament  must 
be  thrown  off.  On  the  sixteenth  of  August  a  county 
congress  of  the  towns  of  Suffolk,  which  then  em- 
•braced  Norfolk,  met  at  a  tavern  in  the  village  of 
Stoughton.  As  the  aged  Samuel  Dunbar,  the  rigid 
Calvinist  minister  of  its  first  parish,  breathed  forth 
among  them  his  prayer  for  liberty,  the  venerable 
man  seemed  inspired  with  "  the  most  divine  and  pro- 
phetical enthusiasm."  "  We  must  stand  undisguised 
upon  one  side  or  the  other,"  said  Thayer,  of  Brain- 
tree.  The  members  were  unanimous  and  firm ;  but 
they  postponed  their  decision,  till  it  could  be  promul- 
gated with  greater  formality.  To  this  end,  and  in 
contempt  of  Gage  and  the  act  of  parliament,  they 
directed  special  meetings  in  every  town  and  precinct 
in  the  county,  to  elect  delegates  with  full  powers  to 
appear  at  Dedham  on  the  first  Monday  in  Septem- 
ber. From  such  a  county  congress  Warren  predicted 
"  very  important  consequences." 

Meantime  Boston  was  not  left  to  deliberate  alone. 
On  Friday,  the  twenty-sixth,  its  committee  were 
joined  at  Faneuil  Hall  by  delegates  from  the  several 
towns  of  the  counties  of  Worcester,  Middlesex,  and 
Essex ;  and  on  the  next  day,  after  calm  consultation, 
they  collectively  denied  the  power  of  parliament  to 
change  the  minutest  tittle  of  their  laws.  As  a  con- 
sequence, they  found  that  all  appointments  to  the 
newly-instituted  council,  and  all  authority  exercised 
by  the  courts  of  justice,  were  unconstitutional;  and 
therefore  that  the  officers,  should  they  attempt  to  act, 

VOL.    VII.  10 


110  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  would  become  "usurpers  of  power"  and  enemies  to 
—  Y—  '  the  province,  even  though  they  bore  the  commission 


°f  the  king-  The  Boston  port-act  they  found  to  be  a 
wicked  violation  of  the  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
means  of  sustenance,  which  all  men  hold  by  the  grace 
of  Heaven,  irrespectively  of  the  king's  leave.  The 
act  of  parliament  removing  from  American  courts  th 
trials  of  officers  who  should  take  the  lives  of  Amer- 
icans, they  described  as  the  extreme  measure  in  the 
system  of  despotism. 

Tor  remedies,  the  convention  proposed  a  provin- 
cial congress  with  large  executive  powers.  In  the 
mean  time  the  unconstitutional  courts  were  to  be 
forbidden  to  proceed,  and  their  officers  to  be  detested 
as  "  traitors  cloaked  with  a  pretext  of  law."  It  was 
known  that  Gage  had  orders  to  make  arrests  ;  each 
individual  patriot  was  therefore  placed  under  the  pro- 
tection of  his  county  and  of  the  province.  The  prac- 
tice of  the  military  art  was  declared  to  be  the  duty 
of  the  people. 

Grage  began  to  show  alarm.  He  looked  about 
him  for  more  troops  ;  he  recommended  the  repair  of 
Crown  Point  ;  and  a  strong  garrison  at  Ticonderoga  ; 
a  well-guarded  line  of  communication  between  New 
York  and  Canada.  He  himself  came  from  Salem  to 
support  the  chief  justice  in  opening  the  court  at 
Boston. 

On  the  same  day  began  the  term  of  the  inferior 
court  at  Springfield.  But  early  in  the  morning, 
fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand  men,  with  drums 
and  trumpets,  marched  into  that  town,  set  up  a  black 
flag  at  the  court-house,  and  threatened  death  to  any 
one  who  should  enter.  After  some  treaty,  the  judges 


MASSACHUSETTS    DEFEATS    THE    REGULATING    ACT.  ill 

executed  a  written  covenant  not  to  put  their  commis-  CHAP: 
sions  in  force ;  Worthington  resigned  his  office  of  ^-^^ 
councillor;  those  of  the  lawyers  who  had  sent  an  ad- 
dress  to  Gage,  atoned  for  their  offence  by  a  written 
confession.  Williams,  the  tory  of  Hatfield,  and 
others  were  compelled  successively  to  go  round  a 
large  circle,  and  ask  forgiveness.  Catlin  and  Warner 
fell  upon  their  knees ;  old  Captain  Mirreck,  of  Mon- 
son,  was  drawn  in  a  cart  and  threatened  to  be  tarred 
and  feathered.  The  people  agreed  that  the  troops, 
if  Gage  should  march  them  to  Worcester,  should  be 
resisted  by  at  least  twenty  thousand  men  from 
Hampshire  county  and  Connecticut. 

At  Boston  the  judges  took  their  seats,  and  the 
usual  proclamations  were  made  ;  when  the  men  who 
had  been  returned  as  jurors,  one  and  all,  refused  to 
take  the  oath.  Being  asked  why  they  refused, 
Thomas  Chase,  who  was  of  the  petit  jury,  gave  as  his 
reason,  "  that  the  chief  justice  of  the  court  stood 
impeached  by  the  late  representatives  of  the  prov- 
ince." In  a  paper  offered  by  the  jury,  the  judges 
found  their  authority  disputed  for  the  further  reasons, 
that  the  charter  of  the  province  had  been  changed 
with  no  warrant  but  an  act  of  parliament,  and  that 
three  of  the  judges,  in  violation  of  the  constitution, 
had  accepted  seats  in  the  new  council. 

The  chief  justice  and  his  colleagues,  repairing  in  a 
body  to  the  governor,  represented  the  impossibility 
of  exercising  their  office  in  Boston  or  in  any  other 
part  of  the  province ;  the  army  was  too  small  for 
their  protection ;  and  besides,  none  would  act  as 
jurors.  Thus  the  authority  of  the  new  government, 


112  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  as  established  by  act  of  parliament,  perished  111  the 
v — <-*->  presence  of  the  governor,  the  judges,  and  the  army. 

Grage  summoned  his  council,  but  only  to  meet 
new  discomfitures.  Its  members  dared  not  show 
themselves  at  Salem,  and  he  consented  to  their  vio- 
lating the  act  of  parliament  by  meeting  in  Boston. 
Hutchinson,  the  son  of  the  former  governor,  with- 
drew from  the  council.  The  few  who  retained  their 
places  advised  unanimously  to  send  no  troops  into 
the  interior,  but  so  to  reinforce  the  army  as  to  con- 
stitute Boston  a  "  place  of  safe  retreat." 

Far  different  was  the  spirit  displayed  on  that 
day  at  Concord  by  the  county  convention,  in  which 
every  town  and  district  of  Middlesex  was  represented. 
"  We  must  now  exert  ourselves,"  said  they,  "  or  all 
those  efforts  which  for  ten  years  past  have  bright- 
ened the  annals  of  this  country,  will  be  totally  frus- 
trated. Life  and  death,  or  what  is  more,  freedom 
and  slavery,  are  now  before  us."  In  behalf,  therefore, 
of  themselves  and  of  future  generations,  they  enume- 
rated the  violations  of  their  rights  by  late  acts  of 
parliament,  which  they  avowed  their  -purpose  to  nul- 
lify, and  they  sent  their  resolves  by  an  express  to  the 
continental  congress.  "  We  are  grieved,"  said  they, 
"  to  find  ourselves  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  enter- 
ing into  the  discussion  of  those  great  and  profound 
questions  ;  but  we  deprecate  a  state  of  slavery.  Our 
fathers  left  us  a  fair  inheritance,  purchased  by  blood 
and  treasure ;  this  we  are  resolved  to  transmit 
equally  fair  to  our  children ;  no  danger  shall  affright, 
no  difficulties  intimidate  us ;  and  if,  in  support  of  our 
rights,  we  are  called  to  encounter  even  death,  we  are 


MASSACHUSETTS    DEFEATS    THE    REGULATING    ACT.  113 

yet  undaunted  ;  sensible  that  he  can  never  die  too  CHAP. 
soon  who  lays  down  his  life  in  support  of  the  laws  • — * — - 
and  liberties  of  his  country." 

The  convention  separated  in  the  evening  of  the 
last  day  of  August,  to  await  the  decisions  of  the  con- 
tinental congress ;  but  before  the  next  sun  was  up 
the  aspect  of  affairs  was  changed. 


VOL.    VII.  10* 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE  SUFFOLK  COUNTY  CONVENTION. 
SEPTEMBER,  1774. 

CRAP.  THE  province  kept  its  powder  for  its  militia  at 
Quarry  Hill  on  a  point  of  land  between  Medford 
an<^  Cambridge,  then  within  the  limits  of  Charles- 
town.  In  August,  the  towns  had  been  removing  their 
stock,  each  according  to  its  proportion.  On  Thurs- 
day morning,  the  first  day  of  September,  at  half  past 
four,  about  two  hundred  and  sixty  men,  commanded 
by  Lieutenant  Colonel  Madison,  embarked  on  board 
thirteen  boats  at  Long  Wharf,  rowed  up  Mystic 
river,  landed  at  Temple's  farm,  took  from  the  public 
magazine  all  the  powder  that  was  there,  amounting 
to  two  hundred  and  fifty  half  barrels,  and  transfer- 
red it  to  the  castle.  A  detachment  from  the  corps 
brought  off  two  field-pieces  from  Cambridge. 

This  forcible  seizure,  secretly  planned  and  sud- 
denly executed,  set  the  country  in  a  flame.  Before 
evening,  large  bodies  of  the  men  of  Middlesex  began 
to  collect ;  and  on  Friday  morning,  thousands  of  free- 
holders, leaving  their  guns  in  the  rear,  advanced  to 


THE    SUFFOLK    COUNTY    CONVENTION.  115 

Cambridge,  armed  only  with  sticks,  and  led  by  cap-  CHAP 
tains  of  the  towns,  representatives,  and  committee  — <—- 
men.  Warren,  hearing  that  the  roads  from  Sudbury 
to  Cambridge  were  lined  by  men  in  arans,  took  with 
him  as  many  of  the  Boston  committee  as  came  in  his 
way,  crossed  to  Charlestown,  and  with  the  committee 
of  that  town  hastened  to  meet  the  committee  of  Cam- 
bridge. On  their  arrival,  they  found  Danforth,  a 
county  judge  and  mandamus  councillor,  addressing 
four  thousand  people  who  stood  in  the  open  air 
round  the  court  house  steps ;  and  such  order  pre- 
vailed, that  the  low  voice  of  the  feeble  old  man  was 
heard  by  the  whole  multitude.  He  finished  by 
giving  a  written  promise,  never  "  to  be  any  way  con- 
cerned as  a  member  of  the  council."  Lee,  in  like  man- 
ner, confirmed  his  former  resignation.  The  turn  of 
Phipps,  the  high  sheriff,  came  next,  and  he  signed  an 
agreement  not  to  execute  any  precept  under  the  new 
act  of  parliament. 

Oliver,  the  lieutenant  governor,  who  resided  at 
Cambridge,  repaired  to  Boston  in  the  "  greatest  dis- 
tress." "  It  is  not  a  mad  mob,"  said  he  to  the 
British  admiral ;  and  he  warned  Gage  that  "  sending 
out  troops  would  be  attended  with  the  most  fatal 
consequences."  Had  they  marched  only  five  miles 
into  the  country,  Warren  was  of  opinion  that  not  a 
man  of  them  would  have  been  saved.  Gage  decided 
to  remain  inactive  ;  writing,  as  his  justification  to  the 
ministry,  "  the  people  are  numerous,  waked  up  to  a 
fury,  and  not  a  Boston  rabble,  but  the  freeholders 
and  farmers  of  the  county.  A  check  would  be  fatal, 
and  the  first  stroke  will  decide  a  great  deal.  We 
should,  therefore,  be  strong,  and  proceed  on  a  good 


116  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  foundation,  before  any  thing  decisive  is  urged,  which 
— *— '  it  is  to  be  presumed  will  prove  successful." 

Oliver  returned  to  Cambridge  with  the  assurance 
that  no  troops  would  appear,  and  to  beg  the  com- 
mittee's leave  to  retain  his  places.  But  in  the  after- 
noon three  or  four  thousand  men  surrounded  his 
house,  and  demanded  his  resignation.  "  My  honor 
is  my  first  consideration,"  said  Oliver  ;  "  the  next  my 
life.  Put  me  to  death  or  destroy  my  property,  but 
I  will  not  submit."  Yet,  on  the  first  appearance 
of  danger,  he  yielded  to  all  their  demands ;  then 
walking  into  his  own  court-yard,  he  reassumed  the 
air  of  a  hero,  and  comforted  himself  by  repeating, 
"I  will  do  no  more,  even  though  they  put  me  to 
death." 

For  three  hours,  beneath  the  scorching  sun  of  the 
hottest  day  of  that  summer,  the  people  kept  the 
ranks  in  which  they  were  marshalled,  and  their 
"  patience,  temperance,  and  fortitude"  were  remarked 
upon  as  the  chief  elements  "  of  a  good  soldier."  They 
allowed  the  force  of  the  suggestion,  that  the  gov- 
ernor, in  removing  the  stores  of  the  province,  had 
broken  no  law ;  and  they  voted  unanimously  their 
abhorrence  of  mobs  and  riots,  and  of  the  destruction 
of  private  property. 

Their  conduct  showed  how  capable  they  were  of 
regular  movements,  and  how  formidable  they  might 
prove  in  the  field ;  but  rumors  reached  England  of 
their  cowardice  and  defeat.  "  What  a  dismal  piece 
of  news! "  said  Charles  Fox  to  Edmund  Burke  ;  "  and 
what  a  melancholy  consideration  for  all  thinking  men, 
that  no  people,  animated  by  what  principle  soever, 
can  make  a  successful  resistance  to  military  disci- 


THE    SUFFOLK    COUNTY    CONVENTION.  117 

pline.  I  was  never  so  affected  with  any  public  event,  CHAP. 
either  in  history  or  in  life.  The  introduction  of 
great  standing  armies  into  Europe  has  made  all  man- 
kind  irrecoverably  slaves.  The  particular  business  I 
think  very  far  from  being  decided ;  but  I  am  de- 
jected at  heart  from  the  sad  figure  that  men  make 
against  soldiers."  Fox  was  misinformed.  In  the 
British  camp  in  Boston,  an  apprehension  at  once  pre- 
vailed of  an  invasion  from  armed  multitudes.  The 
guards  were  doubled ;  cannon  were  placed  at  the 
entrance  of  the  town,  and  the  troops  lay  on  their 
arms  through  the  night. 

Gage  wrote  home,  that  if  the  "  king  would  insist 
on  reducing  New  England,  a  very  respectable  force 
should  take  the  field."  He  already  had  five  regi- 
ments at  Boston,  one  more  at  the  Castle,  and  another 
at  Salem  ;  two  more  he  summoned  hastily  from  Que- 
bec ;  he  sent  transports  to  bring  another  from  New 
York ;  he  still  required  reinforcements  from  Eng- 
land, and  he  resolved  also  to  raise  "  irregulars,  of 
one  sort  or  other,  in  America."  The  sort  of  irregu- 
lars he  had  in  his  mind,  he  explained  in  a  letter  to 
Carleton,  who  was  just  then  expected  to  arrive  at 
Quebec  from  England.  "  I  ask  your  opinion,"  wrote 
he,  "  what  measures  would  be  most  efficacious  to  raise 
a  body  of  Canadians  and  Indians,  and  for  them  to 
form  a  junction  with  the  king's  forces  in  this  prov- 
ince." The  threat  to  employ  the  wild  Indians  in 
war  against  the  colonists,  had  been  thrown  out  at 
the  time  of  Tryon's  march  against  the  Regulators  of 
North  Carolina,  and  may  be  traced  still  further  back, 
at  least  to  the  discussions  in  the  time  of  Shirley  on 
remedies  for  the  weakness  of  British  power.  This  is 


118  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the  moment  when  it  was  adopted  in  practice.  The  com 
— ^  mission  to  Carleton,  as  governor  of  the  province  of  Que- 
^ec  under  the  ac"k  °f  parliament,  conveyed  full  author- 
ity to  levy,  arm,  and  employ  not  the  Canadians  only, 
but  "  all  persons  whatsoever,"  including  the  Indian 
tribes  from  the  coast  of  Labrador  to  the  Ohio  ;  and 
to  march  them  against  rebels  "  into  any  one  of  the 
plantations  in  America." 

It  was  pretended  that  there  were  English  prece- 
dents for  the  practice ;  but  it  was  not  so.  During 
the  French  war,  England  had  formed  .connections 
with  the  Indian  tribes,  through  whose  territory  lay 
the  march  of  the  hostile  armies ;  and  warriors  of  the 
Six  Nations  were  enrolled  and  paid  rather  to  secure 
neutrality  than  service.  But  this  system  had  never 
been  extended  beyond  the  bounds  of  obvious  pru- 
dence as  a  measure  of  self-defence.  No  war  party  of 
savages  was  ever  hounded  at  Canadian  villages.  '  The 
French,  on  the  other  hand,  from  their  superior  skill 
in  gaining  the  love  of  the  Red  Men,  and  from  despair 
at  their  own  relative  inferiority  in  numbers,  had  in 
former  wars  increased  their  strength  by  Indian 
alliances.  These  alliances  the  British  king  and  his 
ministers  now  revived ;  and  against  their  own  colo- 
nies and  kindred,  wished  to  loose  from  the  leash  their 
terrible  auxiliaries. 

The  ruthless  policy  was  hateful  to  every  right- 
minded  Englishman,  and  as  soon  as  the  design  roused 
attention,  the  protest  of  the  nation  was  uttered  by 
Chatham  and  Burke,  its  great  representatives ;  mean- 
time the  execution  of  the  sanguinary  scheme  fell 
naturally  into  the  hands  of  the  most  unscrupulous 
and  subservient  English  officers,  and  the  most 


THE    SUFFOLK    COUNTY    CONVENTION.  119 

covetous  and  cruel  of  the  old  French  partisans.  CHAP. 
Carleton,  from  the  first,  abhorred  the  measure,  which  — ^ 
he  was  yet  constrained  to  promote.  "You  know," 
wrote  he  of  the  Indians  to  Gage,  "  what  sort  of  people 
they  are."  It  was  true:  Gage  had  himself,  in  the 
West  and  in  Canada,  grown  thoroughly  familiar 
with  their  method  of  warfare;  and  his  predecessor 
in  the  chief  command  in  America  had  recorded  his 
opinions  of  their  falseness  and  cruelty  in  the  most 
impassioned  language  of  reprobation.  But  partly 
from  the  sense  of  his  own  impotence  for  offensive 
war,  partly  from  a  moral  feebleness  which  could  not 
vividly  picture  to  itself  the  atrocity  of  his  orders, 
Gage  was  unsusceptible  of  the  suggestions  of  mercy; 
and  without  much  compunction,  he  gave  directions 
to  propitiate  and  inflame  the  Indians  by  gifts,  and  to 
subsidize  their  war  parties.  Before  he  left  America, 
his  commands  to  employ  them  pervaded  the  wilder- 
ness to  the  utmost  bounds  of  his  military  authority, 
even  to  the  south  and  south-west ;  so  that  the  coun- 
cils of  the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws  and  Mohawks 
were  named  as  currently  in  the  correspondence  of 
the  secretary  of  state  as  the  German  courts  of  Hesse 
and  Hanau  and  Anspach. 

In  the  hope  to  subdue  by  terror,  the  intention  of 
employing  Indians  was  ostentatiously  proclaimed. 
Simultaneously  with  the  application  of  Gage  to  the 
province  of  Quebec,  the  president  of  Columbia  college, 
an  Englishman  by  birth  and  education,  published 
to  the  world,  that  in  case  submission  to  parliament 
should  be  withheld,  civil  war  would  follow,  and  the 
Indians  would  be  let  loose  upon  the  back  settlements 
to  scalp  the  inhabitants  along  the  border.  In  this 


120  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  kind  of  warfare  there  could  be  no  parity  between  the 
— r— -  English  and  the  Americans.  The  cannibal  Indian 
was  a  Dangerous  incumbrance  in  the  camp  of  a  regu- 
lar army,  and  not  formidable  in  the  array  of  battle  ; 
he  was  a  deadly  foe  only  as  he  skulked  in  ambush  ; 
or  prowled  on  the  frontier ;  or  burned  the  defenceless 
farm-house;  or  struck  the  laborer  in  the  field;  or 
smote  the  mother  at  her  household  task ;  or  crashed 
the  infant's  head  against  a  rock  or  a  tree  ;  or  tortured 
the  prisoner  on  whose  flesh  he  was  to  gorge.  The 
women  and  children  of  England  had  an  ocean  between 
them  and  the  Indian's  tomahawk,  and  had  no  share 
in  the  terror  that  went  before  his  path,  or  the  sorrows 
that  he  left  behind. 

While  Gage  was  writing  for  troops  from  England, 
from  New  York,  and  from  Quebec,  for  French  Cana- 
dian regiments,  and  for  war-parties  of  Indians,  the 
militia  of  Worcester  county,  hearing  of  the  removal 
of  the  powder  belonging  to  the  province,  rose  in  a 
mass  and  began  the  march  to  Boston.  On  Friday 
afternoon  and  Saturday  morning,  the  volunteers  from 
Hampshire  county  advanced  eastward  as  far  as 
Shrewsbury.  On  the  smallest  computation  twenty 
thousand  were  in  motion.  The  rumor  of  the  seizure 
reached  Israel  Putnam,  in  Connecticut,  with  the  ad- 
dition, that  the  British  troops  and  men-of-war  had 
fired  on  the  people  and  killed  six  men  at  the  first 
shot.  Sending  forward  the  report  to  Norwich,  New 
London,  New  Haven,  New  York,  and  so  to  Philadel- 
phia, he  summoned  the  neighboring  militia  to  take  up 
arms.  Thousands  started  at  his  call ;  but  these,  like 
the  volunteers  of  Massachusetts,  were  stopped  by  ex- 
presses from  the  patriots  of  Boston,  who  sent  word 


THE    SUFFOLK    COUNTY    CONVENTION.  121 

that  at  present  nothing  was  to  be  attempted.  In  re-  CHAP 
turn,  assurances  were  given  of  most  effectual  support, 
whenever  it  might  be  required.  "  Words  cannot  ex- 
press,"  wrote  Putnam  and  his  committee  in  behalf  of 
five  hundred  men  under  arms  at  Pomfret,  "  the  glad- 
ness discovered  by  every  one  at  the  appearance  of  a 
door  being  opened  to  avenge  the  many  abuses  and 
insults  which  those  foes  to  liberty  have  offered  to  our 
brethren  in  your  town  and  province.  But  for  coun- 
ter intelligence,  we  should  have  had  forty  thousand 
men,  well  equipped  and  ready  to  march  this  morning. 
Send  a  written  express  to  the  foreman  of  this  com- 
mittee, when  you  have  occasion  for  our  martial  assist- 
ance ;  we  shall  attend  your  summons,  and  shall  glory 
in  having  a  share  in  the  honor  of  ridding  our  country 
of  the  yoke  of  tyranny,  which  our  forefathers  have 
not  borne,  neither  will  we  ;  and  we  much  desire  you 
to  keep  a  strict  guard  over  the  remainder  of  your 
powder,  for  that  must  be  the  great  means,  under  God, 
of  the  salvation  of  our  country." 

"  How  soon  we  may  need  your  most  effectual  aid," 
answered  the  Boston  committee, "  we  cannot  deter- 
mine ;  but  agreeably  to  your  wise  proposal,  we  shall 
give  you  authentic  intelligence  on  such  contingency. 
The  hour  of  vengeance  comes  lowering  on ;  repress 
your  ardor,  but  let  us  adjure  you  not  to  smother  it." 

This  rising  was  followed  by  many  advantages. 
Every  man  was  led  to  supply  any  deficiencies  in  his 
equipments ;  the  people  gained  confidence  in  one 
another;  and  a  method  was  concerted  for  calling 
them  into  service.  Outside  of  Boston  the  king's  rule 
was  at  an  end ;  no  man  dared  to  invoke  his  protec- 
tion. The  wealthy  royalists,  who  entertained  no 

VOL.    VII.  11 


122  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  doubt  that  all   resistance  would  be  crushed  by  the 
1 — r^  massive  power  of  Britain,  were  silent  from  fear,  or 
lfe?ept    ^e(^  *°  Boston,  as  their  "  only  asylum."     Even  there 
they  did  not  feel  safe. 

By  the  fifth  of  September  Gage  had  ordered 
ground  to  be  broken  for  fortifications  on  the  neck 
which  formed  the  only  entrance  by  land  into  Boston. 
In  the  evening  the  selectmen  remonstrated,  but  with 
no  effect.  The  next  day  the  convention  of  Suffolk 
county,  which  it  had  been  agreed  between  Samuel 
Adams  and  "Warren  should  send  a  memorial  to  the 
general  congress,  met  in  Dedham.  Every  town  and 
district  was  represented;  and  their  grand  business 
was  referred  to  a  committee,  of  which  Warren  was 
the  chairman. 

While  their  report  was  preparing,  the  day  came 
for  holding  the  county  assize  at  Worcester.  On  that 
morning  the  main  street  of  the  town  was  occupied 
on  each  side  by  about  five  thousand  men,  arranged 
under  their  leaders  in  companies,  six  deep,  and  ex- 
tending for  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  Through  this  great 
multitude  the  judges  and  their  assistants  passed  safely 
to  the  court  house ;  but  there  they  were  compelled 
to  stay  proceedings,  and  promise  not  to  take  part  in 
executing  the  unconstitutional  act  of  parliament. 

An  approval  of  the  resistance  of  the  people  was 
embodied  in  the  careful  and  elaborate  report  which 
Warren  on  the  ninth  presented  to  the  adjourned 
Suffolk  convention.  "  On  the  wisdom  and  on  the  ex- 
ertions of  this  important  day,"  such  were  its  words, 
"is  suspended  the  fate  of  the  new  world  and  of 
unborn  millions."  The  resolutions  which  followed, 
declared  that  the  sovereign  who  breaks  his  compact 


THE    SUFFOLK    COUNTY    CONVENTION.  123 


with  his  people,  forfeits  their  allegiance.  By  their 
duty  to  God,  their  country,  themselves  and  posterity,  ^  *~ 
they  pledged  the  county  to  maintain  their  civil  and  sept.' 
religious  liberties,  and  to  transmit  them  entire  to 
future  generations.  They  rejected  as  unconstitutional 
the  regulating  act  of  parliament  and  all  the  officers 
appointed  under  its  authority.  They  enjoined  the 
mandamus  councillors  to  resign  their  places  within 
eleven  days.  Attributing  to  the  British  commander- 
in-chief  hostile  intentions,  they  directed  the  collectors 
of  taxes  to  pay  over  no  money  to  the  treasurer 
whom  he  recognised.  The  governor  and  council  had 
formerly  appointed  all  military  officers;  now  that 
the  legal  council  was  no  longer  consulted,  they  ad- 
vised the  towns  to  elect  for  themselves  officers  of 
their  militia  from  such  as  were  inflexible  friends  to 
the  rights  of  the  people.  For  purposes  of  provincial 
government  they  advised  a  provincial  congress,  while 
they  promised  respect  and  submission  to  the  conti- 
nental congress.  In  reference  to  the  present  hostile 
appearances  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  they  ex- 
pressed their  determination  "  to  act  upon  the  defen- 
sive so  long  as  such  conduct  might  be  vindicated  by 
reason  and  the  principles  of  self-preservation,  but  no 
longer."  Should  Gage  arrest  any  one  for  political 
reasons,  they  promised  to  seize  every  crown  officer  in 
the  province  as  hostages  ;  and  should  it  become  ne- 
cessary suddenly  to  summon  assistance  from  the  coun- 
try, they  arranged  a  system  of  couriers  who  were  to 
bear  written  messages  to  the  selectmen  or  corre- 
sponding committees  of  the  several  towns.  The  reso- 
lutions which  thus  concerted  an  armed  resistance, 
were  unanimously  adopted,  and  forwarded  by  express 


124  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  to  the  continental  congress  for  their  consideration 
-~^  and  advice.  "  In  a  cause  so  solemn,"  they  said, 
"  our  conduct  shall  "be  such  as  to  merit  the  appro- 
bation of  the  wise  and  the  admiration  of  the  brave 
and  free,  of  every  age  and  of  every  country." 

The  good  judgment  and  daring  of  Warren  singled 
him  out  above  all  others  then  in  the  province,  as  the 
leader  of  "rebellion."  The  intrenchments  on  the 
neck  placed  all  within  the  lines  at  the  mercy  of  the 
army;  yet  fearless  of  heart,  he  hastened  into  the 
presence  of  Gage,  to  protest  in  the  name  of  Suffolk 
county  against  the  new  fortifications  that  closed  the 
town. 

All  the  while  the  sufferings  of  Boston  grew  more 
and  more  severe ;  yet  in  the  height  of  distress  for 
want  of  employment,  its  carpenters  refused  to  con- 
struct barracks  for  the  army.  Its  inhabitants,  who 
were  all  invited  to  share  the  hospitality  of  the  interior, 
themselves  desired  to  abandon  the  town,  and  even  to 
see  it  in  flames,  rather  than  "to  be  totally  enslaved"  by 
remaining  at  home ;  but  not  knowing  how  to  decide, 
they  looked  to  congress  for  advice.  Meantime  the 
colony  desired  to  guard  against  anarchy,  by  institu- 
ting a  government  of  their  own,  for  which  they  found 
historical  precedents.  In  the  days  of  William  the 
Deliverer  and  Mary,%Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
had  each  resumed  the  charter  of  government,  which 
James  the  Second  had  superseded ;  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  now  wished  to  revive  their  old  charter ; 
and  continue  allegiance  to  George  the  Third  on  no 
other  terms  than  those  which  their  ancestors  had 
stipulated  with  Charles  the  First ;  "  otherwise,"  said 
they,  "  the  laws  of  God,  of  nature,  and  of  nations 


THE    SUFFOLK    COUNTY    CONVENTION.  125 

* 

oblige  us  to  cast  about  for  safety."  "  If  the  four  New  CHAP 
England  governments  alone  adopt  the  measure,"  said 
Hawley  of  Hampshire,  "I  will  venture  my  life  to 
carry  it  against  the  whole  force  of  Great  Britain." 
In  the  congress  of  Worcester  county,  a  motion  was 
made  at  once  to  reassume  the  old  charter  and  elect  a 
governor.  Warren,  careful  lest  the  province  should 
be  thought  to  aim  at  greater  advantages  than  the 
other  colonies  might  be  willing  to  contend  for,  sought 
first  the  consent  of  the  continental  congress ;  remind- 
ing its  members  that  one  colony  of  freemen  would  be 
a  noble  bulwark  for  all  America. 

New  England  had  already  surmounted  its  greatest 
difficulties ;  its  enemies  now  placed  their  hopes  on 
the  supposed  timidity  of  the  general  congress. 

VOL.    VII.  11* 


CHAPTER   XI. 


THE  CONTINENT  SUPPORTS  MASSACHUSETTS. 

SEPTEMBER,  1774. 

» 
CHAP.  AMONG-  the  members  elected  to  the  continental  con- 

XI 

v— ^  gress,  Galloway  of  Philadelphia  was  so  thoroughly 
177*-  royalist  that  he  acted  as  a  volunteer  spy  for  the 
British  government.  To  the  delegates  from  other 
colonies,  as  they  arrived,  he  insinuated  that  "  commis- 
sioners with  full  powers  should  repair  to  the  British 
court,  after  the  example  of  the  Roman,  Grecian,  and 
Macedonian  colonies  on  occasions  of  the  like  nature ; " 
but  his  colleagues  spurned  the  thought  of  sending 
envoys  to  dangle  at  the  heels  of  a  minister,  and  un- 
dergo the  scorn  of  parliament.  Yet  there  was  great 
diversity  of  opinions  respecting  the  proper  modes  of 
resisting  the  aggressions  of  the  mother  country,  and  • 
conciliation  was  the  ardent  wish  of  all.  The  South 
Carolinians  greeted  the  delegates  of  Massachusetts  as 
the  envoys  of  freedom  herself ;  and  the  Virginians 
equalled  or  surpassed  their  colleagues  in  resoluteness 
and  spirit;  but  all  united  in  desiring  to  promote 
"  the  union  of  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies  on  a 
constitutional  foundation." 


THE    CONTINENT    SUPPORTS    MASSACHUSETTS.  127 

On  Monday  the  fifth  day  of  September,  the  mem-  CHAP. 
bers  of  congress,  meeting  at  Smith's  tavern,  moved  in  ^~ 
a  body  to  select  the  place  for  their  deliberations. 
Galloway,  the  speaker  of  Pennsylyania,  would  have 
had  them  use  the  State  House,  but  the  carpenters  of 
Philadelphia  offered  their  plain  but  spacious  hall; 
and  from  respect  for  the  mechanics,  it  was  accepted 
by  a  great  majority.  The  names  of  the  members 
were  then  called  over,  and  Patrick  Henry,  Washing- 
ton, Richard  Henry  Lee,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams, 
Jay,  Gadsden,  John  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina,  the 
aged  Hopkins  of  Rhode  Island,  and  others,  represent- 
ing eleven  colonies,  answered  to  the  call.  Peyton 
Randolph,  late  speaker  of  the  assembly  of  Virginia, 
was  nominated  president  by  Lynch  of  Carolina,  and 
was  unanimously  chosen.  The  body  then  named 
itself  "the  congress,"  and  its  chairman  "the  pres- 
ident." Jay  and  Duane  would  have  selected  a  secre- 
tary from  among  the  members  themselves,  but  they 
found  no  support;  and  on  the  motion  of  Lynch, 
Charles  Thomson  was  appointed  without  further  op- 
position. The  measures  that  were  to  have  divided 
\merica  bound  them  closely  together.  Colonies 
differing  in  religious  opinions  and  in  commercial  in- 
terests, in  every  thing  dependent  on  climate  and  labor, 
in  usages  and  manners,  swayed  by  reciprocal  preju- 
dices, and  frequently  quarrelling  with  each  other  re- 
specting boundaries,  found  themselves  united  in  one 
representative  body,  and  deriving  from  that  union  a 
power  that  was  to  be  felt  throughout  the  civilized 
world. 

Then   arose  the   question,  as  to  the  method  of 
noting.     There  were  fifty-five  members ;  each  colony 


128  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  having  sent  as  many  as  it  pleased.  Henry,  a  repre- 
— r-^  sentative  of  the  largest  state,  intimated  that  it  would 
be  unjust  for  a  little  colony  to  weigh  as  much  in  the 
councils  of  America  as  a  great  one.  "  A  little  colony," 
observed  Sullivan  of  New  Hampshire,  "  has  its  all  at 
stake  as  well  as  a  great  one."  John  Adams  admitted 
that  the  vote  by  colonies  was  unequal,  yet  that  an 
opposite  course  would  lead  to  perplexing  controversy, 
for  there  were  no  authentic  records  of  the  numbers 
of  the  people,  or  the  value  of  their  trade.  Reserving 
the  subject  for  further  consideration  the  congress 
adjourned. 

The  discussion  led  the  members  to  exaggerate 
the  population  of  their  respective  colonies ;  and  the 
aggregate  of  the  estimates  was  made  to  exceed  three 
millions.  Few  of  them  possessed  accurate  materials ; 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  had  never  enumerated 
the  woodsmen  among  the  mountains  and  beyond 
them.  From  returns  which  were  but  in  part  accessi- 
ble to  the  congress,  it  appears  that  the  whole  number 
of  white  inhabitants  in  all  the  thirteen  colonies  was, 
in  1774,  about  two  millions  one  hundred  thousand ; 
of  blacks,  about  five  hundred  thousand ;  the  total 
population  very  nearly  two  millions  six  hundred 
thousand. 

At  the  opening  of  the  next  day's  session,  a  long 
and  deep  silence  prevailed.  Every  one  feared  the 
responsibility  of  a  decision  which  was  to  influence 
permanently  the  relations  of  independent  states. 
The  voice  of  Virginia  was  waited  for,  and  was 
heard  through  Patrick  Henry. 

Making  a  recital  of  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the 
colonies  by  acts  of  parliament,  he  declared  that  all 


THE    CONTINENT    SUPPORTS    MASSACHUSETTS.  129 

government  was  dissolved ;  that  they  were  reduced  CHAP. 
to  a  state  of  nature  ;  that  the  congress  then  assem-  ^^r- 
bled  was  but  the  first  in  a  never  ending  succession  of 
congresses  ;  that  their  present  decision  would  form  a 
precedent.  Asserting  the  necessity  of  union  and  his 
own  determination  to  submit  to  the  opinion  of  the 
majority,  he  discussed  the  mischiefs  of  an  unequal 
representation,  the  advantage  of  a  system  that  should 
give  each  colony  its  just  weight ;  and  he  breathed 
the  "  hope  that  future  ages  would  quote  their  pro- 
ceedings with  applause."  The  democratical  part  of 
the  constitution,  he  insisted,  must  be  preserved  in  its 
purity.  Without  absolutely  refusing  some  regard  in 
the  adjustment  of  representation  to  the  opulence  of 
a  colony  as  marked  by  its  exports  and  imports, 
he  yet  himself  spoke  for  a  representation  of  men. 
"  Slaves,"  said  he,  "  are  to  be  thrown  out  of  the 
question  ;  if  the  freemen  can  be  represented  accord- 
ing to  their  numbers,  I  am  satisfied."  To  the  objec- 
tion that  such  a  representation  would  confer  an 
undue  preponderance  on  the  more  populous  states, 
he  replied,  "  British  oppression  has  effaced  the  bound- 
aries of  the  several  colonies;  the  distinctions  between 
Virginians,  Pennsylvanians,  New  Yorkers,  and  New 
Englanders  are  no  more.  I  am  not  a  Virginian,  but 
an  American."  "  A  compound  of  numbers  and  prop- 
erty," said  Lynch,  of  South  Carolina,  "  should  deter- 
mine the  weight  of  the  colonies."  But  he  admitted 
that  such  a  rule  could  not  then  be  settled.  In  the 
same  spirit  spoke  the  elder  Eutledge.  "  We  have," 
said  he,  "  no  legal  authority ;  and  obedience  to  the 
measures  we  adopt  will  only  follow  their  reasonable-, 
ness,  apparent  utility,  and  necessity.  We  have  no 


130  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  coercive  authority.  Our  constituents  are  bound  only 
^*^  in  honor  to  observe  our  determinations."  "  I  cannot 
Ls7ept.  see  any  way  °f  votmg  but  by  colonies,"  said  Gads- 
den.  "Every  colony,"  insisted  Ward,  of  Khode 
Island,  "  should  have  an  equal  vote.  The  counties 
of  Virginia  are  unequal  in  point  of  wealth  and  num- 
bers, yet  each  has  a  right  to  send  two  members  to 
its  legislature.  We  come,  if  necessary,  to  make  a 
sacrifice  of  our  all,  and  by  such  a  sacrifice  the  weak- 
est will  suffer  as  much  as  the  greatest."  Harrison, 
of  Virginia,  spoke  strongly  on  the  opposite  side,  and 
was  "very  apprehensive,  that  if  such  a  disrespect 
should  be  put  upon  his  countrymen,  as  that  Virginia 
should  have  no  greater  weight  than  the  smallest 
colony,  they  would  never  be  seen  at  another  conven- 
tion." But  his  menace  of  disunion  showed  only  how 
little  he  understood  the  heart  of  the  Ancient  Domin- 
ion ;  and  he  was  at  once  rebuked  by  his  colleagues. 
"Though  a  representation  equal  to  the  importance 
of  each  colony,  were  ever  so  just,"  said  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  "  the  delegates  from  the  several  colonies 
are  unprepared  with  materials  to  settle  that  equal- 
ity." Bland,  of  Virginia,  saw  no  safety  but  in  voting 
by  colonies.  "  The  question,"  he  added,  "  is,  whether 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  America  shall  be  contended 
for,  or  given  up  to  arbitrary  power."  Pendleton 
acquiesced,  yet  wished  the  subject  might  be  open  for 
reconsideration,  when  proper  materials  should  have 
been  obtained. 

This  opinion  prevailed,  and  it  was  resolved  that, 
in  taking  questions,  each  colony  should  have  one 
voice  ;  but  the  journal  adds  as  the  reason,  that  "  the 


THE    CONTINENT    SUPPORTS    MASSACHUSETTS.  131 

congress  was  not  then  able  to  procure  proper  mate-  CHIP. 
rials  for  ascertaining  the  importance  of  each  colony."  -A-^ 

Henry,  during  the  debate,  had  declared  "  that  an 
entire  new  government  must  be  founded."  "  I  cannot 
yet  think  that  all  government  is  at  an  end,"  said  Jay 
in  reply,  "  or  that  we  came  to  frame  an  American 
constitution,  instead  of  endeavoring  to  correct  the 
faults  in  an  old  one.  The  measure  of  arbitrary 
power  is  not  full,  and  it  must  run  over,  before  we 
undertake  to  frame  a  new  constitution." 

It  was  next  voted  that  "  the  doors  be  kept  shut 
during  the  time  of  business ; "  and  the  members 
bound  themselves  by  their  honor  to  keep  the  pro- 
ceedings 'secret,  until  the  majority  should  direct 
them  to  be  made  public.  The  treacherous  Gallo- 
way pledged*  his  honor  with  the  rest. 

To  the  proposal  that  congress  the  next  day 
should  be  opened  with  prayer,  Jay  and  Rutledge 
objected,  on  account  of  the  great  diversity  of  reli- 
gious sentiments.  "I  am  no  bigot,"  said  Samuel 
Adams,  the  Congregationalist ;  "  I  can  hear  a  prayer 
from  a  man  of  piety  and  virtue,  who  is  at  the  same 
time  a  friend  to  his  country ; "  and  on  his  nomina- 
tion, Duche,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  was  chosen  for 
the  service.  Before  the  adjournment,  Putnam's  ex- 
press arrived  with  the  report  of  a  bloody  attack  on 
the  people  by  the  troops  at  Boston ;  of  Connecti- 
cut as  well  as  Massachusetts  rising  in  arms.  The 
next  day  muffled  bells  were  tolled.  At  the  opening 
of  congress,  Washington  was  present,  standing  in 
prayer,  and  Henry,  and  Eandolph,  and  Lee,  and  Jay, 
tnd  Rutledge,  and  Gadsden ;  and  by  their  side  Pres- 
oyterians  and  Congregationalists,  the  Livingstons, 


132  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

3HAP.  Sherman,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams,  and  others  of 
^v^  New  England,  who  believed  that  a  rude  soldiery  were 
Sept. '  then  infesting  the  dwellings  and  taking  the  lives  of 
their  friends.  When  the  psalm  for  the  day  was  read, 
Heaven  itself  seemed  uttering  its  oracle.  "  Plead 
thou  my  cause,  0  Lord,  with  them  that  strive  with 
me  ;  and  fight  thou  against  them  that  fight  against 
me.  Lay  hand  upon  the  shield  and  buckler,  and 
stand  up  to  help  me.  Bring  forth  the  spear,  and  stop 
the  way  against  them  that  persecute  me.  Who  is 
like  unto  thee?  who  deliverest  the  poor  from  him  that 
is  too  strong  for  him?  Lord!  how  long  wilt  thou 
look  on  ?  Awake,  and  stand  up  to  judge-  my  quar- 
rel ;  avenge  thou  my  cause,  my  God  and  my  Lord." 
After  this  the  minister  unexpectedly  burst  into  an 
extempore  prayer  for  America,  for  the  congress,  for 
Massachusetts,  and  especially  for  Boston,  with  the 
earnestness  of  the  best  divines  of  New  England. 

The  congress  that  day  appointed  one  committee 
on  the  rights  of  the  colonies,  and  another  on  the  Brit- 
ish statutes  affecting  their  manufactures  and  trade. 
They  also  received  by  a  second  express  the  same  con- 
fused account  of  bloodshed  near  Boston.  Proofs  both 
of  the  sympathy  and  the  resolution  of  the  continent 
met  the  delegates  of  Massachusetts  on  every  hand ; 
and  the  cry  of  "  war  "  was  pronounced  with  firmness. 

The  next  day  brought  more  exact  information, 
and  the  committee  of  congress  on  the  rights  of  the 
colonies  began  their  deliberations.  The  first  inquiry 
related  to  the  foundation  of  those  rights.  Lee  of 
Virginia  rested  them  on  nature.  "  Our  ancestors," 
he  said,  "found  here  no  government;  and  as  a  con- 
sequence had  a  right  to  make  their  own.  Charters 


THE    CONTINENT    SUPPORTS    MASSACHUSETTS.  133 

are  an  unsafe  reliance,  for  the  king's  right  to  grant  CHAP. 
them  has  itself  been  denied.  Besides,  the  right  to  — * — 
life,  and  the  right  to  liberty  are  inalienable."  Jay 
of  New  York  likewise  recurred  to  the  laws  of  nature. 
He  would  not  admit  the  pretension  to  dominion 
founded  on  discovery,  and  he  enumerated  among  na- 
tural rights,  the  right  to  emigrate,  and  the  right  of 
the  emigrants  to  erect  what  government  they  pleased. 
John  Eutledge,  on  the  contrary,  held  that  allegiance 
is  inalienable ;  that  the  first  emigrants  had  not  had 
the  right  to  elect  their  king ;  that  American  claims 
were  derived  from  the  British  constitution  rather 
than  from  the  law  of  nature.  But  Sherman  of  Con- 
necticut deduced  allegiance  from  consent,  without 
which  the  colonies  were  not  bound  by  the  act  of 
settlement.  Duane,  like  Rutledge,  shrunk  back  from 
the  appeal  to  the  law  of  nature,  and  founded  the 
power  of  government  on  property  in  land. 

Behind  all  these  views  lay  the  question  of  the 
power  of  parliament  over  the  colonies.  Dickinson, 
not  yet  a  member  of  congress,  was  fully  of  opinion 
that  no  officer  under  the  new  establishment  in  Massa- 
chusetts ought  to  be  acknowledged,  but  advocated 
"  allowing  to  parliament  the  regulation  of  trade  upon 
principles  of  necessity,  and  the  mutual  interest  of 
both  countries."  "  A  right  of  regulating  trade,"  said 
Gadsden,  true  to  the  principle  of  1765,  "is  a  right  of 
legislation,  and  a  right  of  legislation  in  one  case  is  a 
right  in  all ; "  and  he  denied  the  claim  with  peremp- 
tory energy. 

Amidst  such  varying  opinions  and  theories,  the 
congress,  increased  by  delegates  from  North  Carolina, 
and  intent  upon  securing  absolute  unanimity,  was 

VOL.    VII.  12 


134  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  moving  with  great  deliberation,  and  Galloway  hoped 
^-Y^-  "  the  two  parties  would  remain  on  an  equal  balance." 
«But  in  that  body  there  was  a  man  who  knew  how  to 
bring  the  enthusiasm  of  the  people  into  connection 
with  its  representatives.  "Samuel  Adams,"  wrote 
Galloway,  "  though  by  no  means  remarkable  for  bril- 
liant abilities,  is  equal  to  most  men  in  popular  in- 
trigue, and  the  management  of  a  faction.  He  eats 
little,  drinks  little,  sleeps  little,  and  thinks  much,  and 
is  most  decisive  and  indefatigable  in  the  pursuit  of 
his  objects.  He  was  the  man  who,  by  his  superior 
application  managed  at  once  the  faction  in  congress 
at  Philadelphia,  and  the  factions  in  New  England." 

One  express  had  brought  from  Massachusetts  the 
proceedings  of  Middlesex;  another  having  now  ar- 
rived, on  Saturday,  the  seventeenth  of  September, 
the  delegates  of  Massachusetts  laid  before  congress 
the  address  of  the  Suffolk  county  convention  to 
Gage,  on  his  seizure  of  the  provincial  stock  of  powder 
and  his  hostile  occupation  of  the  only  approach  to 
Boston  by  land ;  and  the  resolutions  of  the  same  con- 
vention which  declared  that  no  obedience  was  due  to 
the  acts  of  parliament  affecting  their  colony. 

As  the  papers  were  read,  expressions  of  esteem, 
love  and  admiration  broke  forth  in  generous  and 
manly  eloquence.  In  language  which  but  faintly 
expressed  their  spirit,  members  from  all  the  colonies 
declared  their  sympathy  with  their  suffering  country- 
men in  Massachusetts,  most  thoroughly  approved  the 
wisdom  and  fortitude  with  which  opposition  to  min- 
isterial measures  had  hitherto  been  conducted,  and 
earnestly  recommended  perseverance  according  to 
the  resolutions  of  the  county  of  Suffolk.  Knowing 


THE    CONTINENT    SUPPORTS    MASSACHUSETTS.  135 

that  a  new  parliament  must  soon  be  chosen,  they  ex-  CHAP. 
pressed  their  trust  "  that  the  united  efforts  of  North  • — <— 
America  would  carry  such  conviction  to  the  British 
nation  of  the  unjust  and  ruinous  policy  of  the  present 
administration,  as  quickly  to  introduce  Better  men 
and  wiser  measures." 

To  this  end  they  ordered  their  own  resolutions 
with  the  communications  from  Suffolk  county  to  be 
printed.  But  their  appeal  to  the  electors  of  Britain 
was  anticipated.  The  inflexible  king,  weighing  in 
advance  the  possible  influence  of  the  American  con- 
gress, overruled  Lord  North,  and  on  the  last  day  of 
September  suddenly  dissolving  parliament,  he 
brought  on  the  new  election,  before  proposals  for 
conciliation  could  be  received. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS  SEEKS  TO  AVERT  INDEPENDENCE 
SEPTEMBER — OCTOBER,  1774. 

CxnP>  GAGE,  who  came  flushed  with  confidence  in  an  easy 
— ""^  victory,  at  the  end  of  four  months  was  care-worn, 
Sept.  disheartened  and  appalled.  With  the  forces  under 
his  command,  he  hoped  for  no  more  than  to  pass  the 
winter  unmolested.  At  one  moment,  a  suspension 
of  the  penal  acts  was  his  favorite  advice,  which 
the  king  ridiculed  as  senseless ;  at  the  next  he  de- 
manded an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men,  to  be  com- 
posed of  Canadian  recruits,  Indians,  and  hirelings 
from  the  continent  of  Europe  ;  again,  he  would  bring 
the  Americans  to  terms,  by  casting  them  off  as  fel- 
low-subjects, and  not  suffering  even  a  boat  to  go  in 
or  out  of  their  harbors.  All  the  while  he  was  exert- 
ing himself  to  obtain  payment  for  the  tea  as  a  pre- 
lude to  reconciliation.  His  agents  wrote  to  their 
friends  in  congress,  urging  concessions.  Such  was 
the  advice  of  Church,  in  language  affecting  the  high- 
est patriotism ;  and  an  officer  who  had  served  with 
Washington  sought  to  persuade  his  old  companion  in 


CONGRESS    SEEKS    TO    AVERT    INDEPENDENCE.  137 

arms,  that  New  England  was  conspiring  for  independ-  CHAP. 
ence.  It  was,  moreover,  insinuated,  that  if  Massachu-  — * — 
setts  should  once  resume  its  old  charter,  and  elect  its 
governor,  all  New  England  would  unite  with  her, 
and  become  strong  enough  to  absorb  the  lands  of 
other  governments  ;  that  New  Hampshire  would 
occupy  both  slopes  of  the  Green  Mountains;  that 
Massachusetts  would  seize  the  western  territory  of 
New  York  ;  while  Connecticut  would  appropriate 
northern  Pennsylvania,  and  compete  with  Virginia 
for  the  West, 

Out  of  Boston  the  power  of  Gage  was  at  an  end. 
In  the  county  of  "Worcester,  the  male  inhabitants 
from  the  age  of  sixteen  to  seventy,  formed  them- 
selves into  companies  and  regiments,  chose  their  own 
officers,  and  agreed  that  one-third  part  of  the  en- 
rolled should  hold  themselves  ready  to  march  u  at  a 
minute's  warning."  "  In  time  of  peace,  prepare  for 
war,"  was  the  cry  of  the  country.  The  frugal  New 
England  people  increased  their  frugality.  "  As  for 
me,"  wrote  the  wife  of  a  member  of  congress,  "  I 
will  seek  wool  and  flax,  and  work  willingly  with  my 
hands."  Yet  the  poorest  man  in  his  distress  would 
not  accept  employment  from  the  British  army  ;  and 
the  twelve  nearest  towns  agreed  to  withhold  from 
the  troops  every  supply  beyond  what  humanity  re- 
quired. But  all  the  province,  even  to  Falmouth,  and 
beyond  it,  shared  the  sorrows  of  Boston,  and  cheered 
its  inhabitants  in  their  sufferings.  "  This  much  injured 
town,"  said  the  wife  of  John  Adams,  "like  the  body 
of  a  departed  friend,  has  only  put  off  its  present 
glory,  to  rise  finally  to  a  more  happy  state."  Nor  did 
its  citizens  despair.  Its  newly  elected  representatives 

VOL.    VII.  12* 


138  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  were  instructed  never  to  acknowledge  the  regulating 
— r^  act ;  and  in  case  of  a  dissolution,  to  join  the  other 
members  in  forming  a  provincial  congress. 

The  assembly  was  summoned  for  the  fifth  of 
October,  at  which  time  the  councillors  who  had  been 
legally  commissioned  in  May,  intended  to  take  their 
seats ;  their  period  of  office  was  a  year,  and  the  king's 
good  will  was  not  the  condition  of  their  tenure 
Against  so  clear  a  title  the  mandamus  councillors 
would  not  dare  to  claim  their  places  without  a 
larger  escort  than  they  could  receive.  Gage  was  in 
a  dilemma.  On  the  twenty-eighth  of  September,  by 
an  anomalous  proclamation,  he  neither  dissolved  nor 
prorogued  the  assembly  which  he  himself  had  called, 
but  declined  to  meet  it  at  Salem,  and  discharged  the 
representatives  elect  from  their  duty  of  attendance. 

Meantime,  the  continental  committee  on  the  rights 
of  the  colonies  having  been  increased  by  one  member 
from  each  of  the  three  provinces,  Virginia,  Massachu- 
setts, and  Pennsylvania,  extended  their  searches  to 
the  statutes  affecting  industry  and  trade.  But  in  a 
body  whose  members  were  collected  from  remote 
parts  of  the  country,  accustomed  to  no  uniform  rules, 
differing  in  their  ideas  and  their  forms  of  expression, 
distrust  could  be  allayed  only  by  the  most  patient 
discussions ;  and  for  the  sake  of  unanimity,  tedious 
delay  was  inevitable. 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  silently  agreed  to  rest 
the  demands  of  America  not  on  considerations  of 
natural  rights,  but  on  a  historical  basis.  In  this 
manner,  even  the  appearance  of  a  revolution  was 
avoided;  and  ideal  freedom  was  claimed  only  as 
embodied  in  facts. 


CONGRESS    SEEKS    TO    AVERT    INDEPENDENCE.  139 

How  far  the  retrospect  for  grievances  should  he  CHAP. 
carried,  was  the  next  inquiry.  South  Carolina  would  ^v — 
have  included  all  laws  restrictive  of  manufactures  and 
navigation ;  in  a  word,  all  the  statutes  of  which  Great 
Britain  had  been  so  prodigal  towards  her  infant  colo- 
nies, for  the  purpose  of  confining  their  trade,  and 
crippling  their  domestic  industry.  But  the  Virgin- 
ians, conforming  to  their  instructions,  narrowed  the 
issue  to  the  innovations  during  the  reign  of  George 
the  Third ;  and  as  Maryland  and  North  Carolina 
would  not  separate  from  Virginia,  the  acts  of  naviga- 
tion, though  condemned  by  Lee  as  a  capital  violation 
of  American  rights,  were  not  included  in  the  list  of 
grievances. 

The  Virginians  had  never  meant  to  own  the  bind- 
ing force  of  the  acts  of  navigation ;  the  proposal  to 
recognise  them  came  from  Duane,  of  New  York ;  and 
encountered  the  strongest  opposition.  Some  wished 
to  deny  altogether  the  authority  of  parliament ; 
others,  its  power  of  taxation  ;  others,  its  power  of  in- 
ternal taxation  only.  These  discussions  were  drawn 
into  great  length,  and  seemed  to  promise  no  agree- 
ment; till,  at  last,  John  Adams  was  persuaded  to 
shape  a  compromise  in  the  spirit  and  very  nearly 
in  the  words  of  Duane.  His  resolution  ran  thus : 
"  From  the  necessity  of  the  case,  and  a  regard  to  the 
mutual  interest  of  the  countries,  we  cheerfully  con- 
sent to  the  operation  of  such  acts  of  the  British  par- 
liament, as  are  bona  fide,  restrained  to  the  regula- 
tion of  our  external  commerce,  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  the  commercial  advantages  of  the  whole 
mpire  to  the  mother  country,  and  the  commercial 
Benefits  of  its  respective  members ;  excluding  every 


140  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  idea  of  taxation,  internal  or  external,  for  raising  a 
•^v-^  revenue  on  the  subjects  in  America  without  their 
l77*-  consent." 

Sept. 

This  article  was  contrary  to  the  principles  of  Otis 
at  the  commencement  of  the  contest ;  to  the  repeated 
declarations  of  Samuel  Adams ;  to  the  example  of 
the  congress  of  1765,  which  had  put  aside  a  similar 
proposition,  when  offered  by  Livingston,  of  New 
York.  Not  one  of  the  committee  was  fully  satisfied 
with  it ;  yet,  as  the  ablest  speaker  from  Massachu- 
setts was  its  advocate,  the  concession  was  irrevocable. 
It  stands  as  a  monument  that  the  congress  harbored 
no  desire  but  of  reconciliation.  "  I  would  have  given 
every  thing  I  possessed  for  a  restoration  to  the  state 
of  things  before  the  contest  began ; "  said  John  Ad- 
ams at  a  later  day.  His  resolution  accepted  that 
badge  of  servitude,  the  British  colonial  system. 

During  these  discussions,  Galloway,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  secret  concert  with  the  governor  of  New 
Jersey  and  with  Golden  of  New  York,  proposed  for 
the  government  of  the  colonies  a  president-general, 
to  be  appointed  by  the  king,  and  a  grand  council  to 
be  chosen  once  in  three  years  by  the  several  assem- 
blies. The  British  parliament  was  to  have  the  power 
of  revising  the  acts  of  this  body ;  which  in  its  turn 
was  to  have  a  negative  on  British  statutes  relating  to 
the  colonies.  "  I  am  as  much  a  friend  to  liberty  as- 
exists,"  blustered  Galloway,  as  he  presented  his  in- 
sidious proposition,  "and  no  man  shall  go. further  in 
point  of  fortune  or  in  point  of  blood,  than  the  man 
who  now  addresses  you."  His  scheme  held  out  a 
hope  of  'a  continental  union,  which  was  the  long 
cherished  policy  of  New  York ;  it  was  seconded  by 


CONGRESS    SEEKS    TO    AVERT    INDEPENDENCE.  141 

Duane,  and  advocated  by  Jay ;  but  opposed  by  Lee  CHAP 
of  Virginia.  Patrick  Henry  objected  to  entrusting  >^v^. 
the  power  of  taxation  to  a  council  to  be  chosen  not 
directly  by  the  people,  but  indirectly  by  its  repre- 
sentatives ;  and  he  condemned  the  proposal  in  all  its 
aspects.  "  The  original  constitution  of  the  colo- 
nies," said  he,  "  was  founded  on  the  broadest  and 
most  generous  base.  The  regulation  of  our  trade 
compensates  all  the  protection  we  ever  experienced. 
We  shall  liberate  our  constituents  from  a  corrupt 
house  of  commons,  but  throw  them  into  the  arms 
of  an  American  legislature,  that  may  be  bribed  by  a 
nation  which  in  the  face  of  the  world  avows  bribery 
as  a  part  of  her  system  of  government.  Before  we 
are  obliged  to  pay  taxes  as  they  do,  let  us  be  as  free 
as  they ;  let  us  have  our  trade  open  with  all  the 
world."  "  I  think  the  plan  almost  perfect,"  said  Ed- 
ward Rutledge.  But  not  one  colony,  unless  it  may 
have  been  New  York,  voted  in  its  favor ;  and  no 
more  than  a  bare  majority  would  consent  that  it 
should  even  lie  on  the  table.  Its  mover  boasted  of 
this  small  courtesy  as  of  a  triumph,  though  at  a 
later  day  the  congress  struck  the  proposal  from  its 
record. 

With  this  defeat,  Galloway  lost  his  mischievous 
importance.  At  the  provincial  elections  in  Pennsyl-  Oct 
vania,  on  the  first  day  of  October,  Dickinson,  his  old 
opponent,  was  chosen  almost  unanimously  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  county.  Mifflin,  though  opposed  by 
some  of  the  Quakers  as  too  warm,  was  elected  a  bur- 
gess of  Philadelphia  by  eleven  hundred  votes  out  of 
thirteen  hundred,  with  Charles  Thomson  as  his  col- 
league. The  assembly,  on  the  very  day  of  its  organi- 


142  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  zation,  added  Dickinson  to  its  delegation  in  congress, 
*— Y^  and  he  took  Ms  seat  in  season  to  draft  the  address  of 
that  body  to  the  king. 

During  the  debates  on  the  proper  basis  of  that 
address,  letters  from  Boston  announced  that  the  gov- 
ernment continued  seizing  private  military  stores, 
suffering  the  soldiery  "  to  treat  both  town  and  coun- 
try as  declared  enemies,"  fortifying  the  place,  and 
mounting  cannon  at  its  entrance,  as  though  he  would 
hold  its  inhabitants  as  hostages,  in  order  to  compel  a 
compliance  with  the  new  laws.  As  he  had  eluded 
the  meeting  of  the  general  court,  they  applied  to 
congress  for  advice ;  if  the  congress  should  instruct 
them  to  quit  the  town,  they  would  obey.  The  citi- 
zens, who,  as  a  body,  had  been  more  affluent  than 
those  of  any  other  place  of  equal  numbers  in  the 
world,  made  a  formal  offer,  to  abandon  their  homes, 
and  throw  themselves,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
their  aged  and  infirm,  on  the  charity  of  the  country 
people,  or  build  huts  in  the  woods,  and  never  revisit 
their  native  walls  until  re-established  in  their  rights 
and  liberties.  The  courage  of  Gadsden  blazed  up  at 
the  thought,  and  he  proposed  that  Gage  should  be 
attacked  and  routed  before  re  enforcements  could 
arrive ;  but  the  congress  was  resolved  to  exhaust 
every  means  of  redress,  before  sanctioning  an  appeal 
to  arms. 

The  spirit  of  the  people  was  more  impetuous ; 
confident  in  their  strength  they  scorned  the  thought 
of  obedience,  except  on  conditions  that  should  be 
satisfactory  to  themselves.  About  the  middle  of 
October  the  brig  Peggy  Stewart,  from  London, 
arrived  at  Annapolis,  with  two  thousand  three  hun- 


CONGRESS    SEEKS    TO    AVERT    INDEPENDENCE.  143 

dred  and  twenty  pounds  of  tea,  on  which  the  owner  CHAP. 
of  the  vessel  made  haste  to  pay  the  duty.  The.  people 
of  Maryland  resented  this  voluntary  submission  to 
the  British  claim  which  their  delegates  to  the  general 
congress  were  engaged  in  contesting.  The  fidelity 
and  honor  of  the  province  seemed  in  question.  A 
committee  therefore  kept  watch,  to  prevent  the  land- 
ing of  the  tea ;  successive  public  meetings  drew 
throngs  even  from  distant  counties ;  till  the  two  im- 
porters and  the  ship  owner  jointly  expressed  their 
contrition,  asked  forgiveness  in  the  most  humiliating 
language,  and  offered  to  expiate  their  offence  by 
burning  the  "  detestable  article  "  which  had  been  the 
cause  of  their  misconduct.  When  it  appeared  that 
this  offer  did  not  wholly  satisfy  the  crowd,  the  owner 
of  the  brig,  after  a  little  consultation  with  Charles 
Carroll,  himself  proposed  to  devote  that  also  to  the 
flames.  The  offer  was  accepted.  The  penitent 
importers  and  owner  went  on  board  the  vessel,  and 
with  her  sails  and  colors  flying,  in  the  presence 
of  a  large  multitude  of  gazers,  they  themselves  set 
fire  to  the  packages  of  tea,  all  which,  together  with 
the  Peggy  Stewart,  her  canvas,  cordage,  and  every 
appurtenance,  was  consumed. 


CHAPTEE  XIII. 

CONGRESS  WILL  MAKE  THE   LAST  APPEAL  IF  NECESSARY. 

OCTOBEB,  1*774. 

Cxnf'  WASHINGTON  was  convinced  that  not  one  thinking 
^^  man  in  all  North  America  desired  independence.  He 
1Qct '  ardently  wished  to  end  the  horrors  of  civil  discord, 
and  restore  tranquillity  upon  constitutional  grounds, 
but  his  indignation  at  the  wrongs  of  Boston  could  be 
appeased  only  by  their  redress ;  and  his  purpose  to 
resist  the  execution  of  the  regulating  act  was  unal- 
terable. "  Permit  me,"  said  he,  addressing  a  British 
officer,  then  serving  under  Gage,  "  with  the  freedom 
of  a  friend,  to  express  my  sorrow  that  fortune  should 
place  you  in  a  service,  that  must  fix  curses  to  the 
latest  posterity  upon  the  contrivers,  and  if  success 
(which  by  the  by  is  impossible)  accompanies  it,  ex- 
ecrations upon  all  those  who  have  been  instrumental 
in  the  execution.  The  Massachusetts  people  are 
every  day  receiving  fresh  proofs  of  a  systematic 
assertion  of  an  arbitrary  power,  deeply  planned  to 
overturn  the  laws  and  constitution  of  their  country, 
and  to  violate  the  most  essential  and  valuable  rights 


CONGRESS    WILL    MAKE    THE    LAST    APPEAL.  145 

of  mankind.  It  is  not  the  wish  of  that  government,  CHAP. 
or  any  other  upon  this  continent,  separately  or  col 
lectively,  to  set  up  for  independence;  but  none  of 
them  will  ever  submit  to  the  loss  of  those  rights  and 
privileges  without  which  life,  liberty,  and  property 
are  rendered  totally  insecure.  Is  it  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  men  attempt  to  avert  the  impending  blow 
in  its  progress,  or  prepare  for  their  defence  if  it  can- 
not be  averted  ?  Give  me  leave  to  add  as  my  opinion, 
that  if  the  ministry  are  determined  to  push  matters  to 
extremity,  more  blood  will  be  spilled  on  this  occasion, 
than  history  has  ever  yet  furnished  instances  of  in 
the  annals  of  North  America." 

Koss,  a  Pennsylvanian,  moved  that  Massachusetts 
should  be  left  to  her  own  discretion  with  respect  to 
government  and  the  administration  of  justice  as  well 
as  defence.  The  motion  was  seconded  by  Galloway,  in 
the  hope  of  obstructing  the  interference  of  congress. 
Had  it  been  adopted,  under  the  Pine  Tree  flag  of 
her  forefathers  she  would  have  revived  her  first 
charter,  elected  her  governor,  and  established  a  pop- 
ular government.  But  the  desire  of  conciliation  for- 
bade a  policy  so  revolutionary.  The  province  was 
therefore  left  to  its  anarchy ;  but  on  the  eighth  of  Oc- 
tober it  was  resolved,  though  not  unanimously,  "  that 
this  congress  approve  the  opposition  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  execution  of 
the  late  acts  of  parliament;  and  if  the  same  shall  be 
attempted  to  be  carried  into  execution  by  force,  in 
such  case,  all  America  ought  to  support  them  in  their 
opposition."  This  is  the  measure  which  hardened 
George  the  Third  to  listen  to  no  terms.  He  was  in- 
exorably bent  on  enforcing  the  new  system  of  govern- 

VOL.    VII.  13 


146  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ment  in  Massachusetts,  and  extending  it  to  Connec- 
ticut  and  Rhode  Island.  The  congress,  when  it 
adopted  this  resolve,  did  not  know  the  extent  of 
the  aggressions  which  the  king  designed.  Hence- 
forth conciliation  became  impossible.  Galloway  and 
Duane  desired  leave  to  enter  their  protests  against 
the  measure ;  and  as  this  was  refused,  they  gave  to 
each  other  privately  certificates  that  they  had  op- 
posed it  as  treasonable.  But  the  decision  of  congress 
was  made  deliberately.  Two  days  later,  they  fur- 
ther "  declared  that  every  person  who  should  accept 
or  act  under  any  commission  or  authority  derived 
from  the  regulating  act  of  parliament,  changing  the 
form  of  government  and  violating  the  charter  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, ought  to  be  held  in  detestation ; "  and  in 
their  letter  to  Gage,  they  censured  his  conduct,  as  tend- 
ing "  to  involve  a  free  people  in  the  horrors  of  war." 

In  adopting  a  declaration  of  rights,  the  division 
which  had  shown  itself  in  the  committee  was  .renewed. 
"  Here,"  said  "Ward  of  Rhode  Island,  "  no  acts  of  par- 
liament can  bind.  Giving  up  this  point  is  yielding 
all."  Against  him  spoke  John  Adams  and  Duane. 
"  A  right,"  said  Lynch  of  Carolina,  "  to  bind  us  in 
one  case  may  imply  a  right  to  bind  us  in  all ;  but 
we  are  bound  in  none."  The  resolution  of  concession 
was  at  first  arrested  by  the  vote  of  five  colonies 
against  five,  with  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 
divided,  but  at  last  was  carried  by  the  influence  of 
John  Adams.  Duane  desired  next  to  strike  the 
Quebec  act  from  the  list  of  grievances;  but  of  all 
the  bad  acts  of  parliament  Richard  Henry  Lee  pro- 
nounced it  the  worst.  His  opinion  prevailed  upon 
a  vote  which  Duane's  adhesion  made  unanimous. 


CONGRESS  WILL  MAKE  THE  LAST  APPEAL.         147 

Thus  eleven  acts  of  parliament  or  parts  of  acts,  in-  CHAP. 
eluding  the  Quebec  act  and  the  acts  specially  affect-  -^ — 
ing  Massachusetts,  were  declared  to  be  such  infringe- 
ments  and  violations  of  the  rights  of  the  colonies,  that 
the  repeal  of  them  was  essentially  necessary,  in  order 
to  restore  harmony  between  the  colonies  and  Great 
Britain. 

The  congress  had  unanimously  resolved,  from  the 
first  day  of  the  coming  December,  not  to  import  any 
merchandise  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  If  the 
redress  of  American  grievances  should  be  delayed 
beyond  the  tenth  day  of  September  of  the  following 
year,  a  resolution  to  export  no  merchandise  to  Great 
Britain,  Ireland  and  the  West  Indies  after  that  date 
was  carried,  but  against  the  voice  of  South  Carolina. 
When  the  members  proceeded  to  bind  themselves  to 
these  measures  by  an  association,  three  of  the  dele: 
gates  of  that  colony  refused  their  names.  "  The  agree- 
ment to  stop  exports  to  Great  Britain  is  unequal," 
reasoned  Kutledge ;  "  New  England  ships  little  or 
nothing  there,  but  sends  fish,  its  great  staple,  to 
Portugal  or  Spain;  South  Carolina  annually  ships 
rice  to  England  to  the  value  of  a  million  and  a  half 
of  dollars.  New  England  would  be  affected  but  little 
by  the  prohibition;  Carolina  would  be  ruined ;"  and 
he  and  two  of  his  colleagues  withdrew  from  the  con- 
gress. Gadsden,  who  never  counted  the  cost  of  pa- 
triotism, remained  in  his  place,  and  trusting  to  the 
generosity  of  his  constituents,  declared  himself  ready 
to  sign  the  association.  All  business  was  interrupted 
for  several  days ;  but  in  the  end  congress  recalled  the 
seceders  by  allowing  the  unconditional  export  of  rice. 

The  association  further  contained  this  memorable 


148  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  covenant,   which    was   adopted  without   opposition, 
*—~*-i>  and  inaugurated  the   abolition   of  the  slave-trade  : 


lolt'  "^e  w^  neither  import,  nor  purchase  any  slave 
imported  after  the  first  day  of  December  next  ;  after 
which  time  we  will  wholly  discontinue  the  slave- 
trade,  and  will  neither  be  concerned  in  it  ourselves, 
nor  will  we  hire  our  vessels,  nor  sell  our  commodities 
or  manufactures  to  those  who  are  concerned  in  it." 

This  first  American  congress  also  adopted  another 
measure,  which  was  without  an  example.  It  recog- 
nised the  political  existence  and  power  of  the  people. 
While  it  refused  to  petition  parliament,  it  addressed 
the  people  of  the  provinces  from  Nova  Scotia  to 
Florida,  the  people  of  Canada,  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  ;  making  the  printing  press  its  great  ambas- 
sador to  the  rising  power. 

Of  the  British  people,  congress  entreated  a  return 
to  the  system  of  1763  :  "  Prior  to  this  era,"  said  they 
in  the  language  of  Jay,  "you  were  content  with 
wealth  produced  by  our  commerce.  You  restrained 
our  trade  in  every  way  that  could  conduce  to  your 
emolument.  You  exercised  unbounded  sovereignty 
over  the  sea."  Still  assenting  to  these  restrictions, 
they  pleaded  earnestly  for  the  enjoyment  of  equal 
freedom,  and  demonstrated  that  a  victory  over  the 
rights  of  America,  would  not  only  be  barren  of  ad- 
vantage to  the  English  nation,  but  increase  their 
public  debt  with  its  attendant  pensioners  and  place- 
men, diminish  their  commerce,  and  lead  to  the  over- 
throw of  their  liberties  by  violence  and  corruption. 
"  To  your  justice,"  they  said,  "  we  appeal.  You  have 
been  told  that  we  are  impatient  of  government  and 
desirous  of  independency.  These  are  calumnies.  Per- 


%  CONGRESS    WILL    MAKE    THE    LAST    APPEAL.  149 

mit  us  to  be  as  free  as  yourselves,  and  we  shall  ever  CHAP. 

•  •  i  i  -i-i      XIII. 

esteem  a  union  with  you  to  be  our  greatest  glory  and  — ,~ 
our  greatest  happiness,  But  if  you  are  determined 
that  your  ministers  shall  wantonly  sport  with  the 
rights  of  mankind  ;  if  neither  the  voice  of  justice,  the 
dictates  of  law,  the  principles  of  the  constitution,  or 
the  suggestions  of  humanity,  can  restrain  your  hands 
from  shedding  human  blood  in  such  an  impious  cause, 
we  must  then  tell  you  that  we  will  never  submit  to 
any  ministry  or  nation  in  the  world." 

A  second  congress  was  appointed  for  May,  at 
which  all  the  colonies  of  North  America,  including 
Nova  Scotia  and  Canada,  were  invited  to  appear  by 
their  deputies.  The  ultimate  decision  of  America 
was  then  embodied  in  a  petition  to  the  king,  written 
by  Dickinson,  and  imbued  in  every  line  with  a  de- 
sire for  conciliation.  In  the  list  of  grievances,  con- 
gress enumerated  the  acts,  and  those  only  which  had 
been  enacted  since  the  year  1763,  for  the  very  pur- 
pose of  changing  the  constitution  or  the  administra- 
tion of  the  colonies.  They  justified  their  discontent 
by  fact  and  right ;  by  historic  tradition,  and  by  the 
ideas  of  reason.  "  So  far  from  promoting  innova- 
tions," said  they  truly,  "  we  have  only  opposed  them ; 
and  can  be  charged  with  no  offence,  unless  it  be  one 
to  receive  injuries  and  be  sensible  of  them."  Acqui- 
escing in  the  restrictions  on  their  ships  and  industry, 
they  professed  a  readiness  on  the  part  of  the  colonial 
legislatures  to  make  suitable  provision  for  the  admin- 
istration of  justice,  the  support  of  civil  government, 
and  for  defence,  protection,  and  security  in  time  of 
peace ;  in  case  of  war,  they  pledged  the  colonies  to 
''  most  strenuous  efforts  in  granting  supplies  and  rais- 

VOL    VII.  13* 


150  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

ing  forces."  But  the  privilege  of  thus  expressing 
their  affectionate  attachment  they  would  "never 
resign  to  any  body  of  men  upon  earth."  "We  ask," 
they  continued,  "  but  for  peace,  liberty,  and  safety. 
We  wish  not  a  diminution  of  the  prerogative,  nor 
the  grant  of  any  new  right.  Your  royal  authority 
over  us,  and  our  connection  with  Great  Britain,  we 
shall  always  support  and  maintain;"  and  they  be- 
sought of  the  king  "  as  the  loving  father  of  his  whole 
people,  his  interposition  for  their  relief,  and  a  gra- 
cious answer  to  their  petition." 

No  more  was  asked  by  congress  for  their  con- 
stituents than  security  in  their  ancient  condition. 
From  complacency  towards  Buckingham,  they  passed 
over  the  declaratory  act  in  silence ;  and  they  ex- 
pressed their  cheerful  assent  to  that  power  of  regu- 
lating commerce,  for  which  the  elder  Pitt  had  always 
been  strenuous.  But  the  best  evidence  of  their  sin- 
cerity is  found  in  the  measure  which  they  recom- 
mended. Had  independence  been  their  object,  they 
would  have  strained  every  nerve  to  increase  their  ex- 
ports, and  fill  the  country  in  return  with  the  manu- 
factures and  munitions  which  they  required.  The 
suspension  of  trade  was  the  most  disinterested  manner 
of  expressing  to  the  mother  country  how  deeply  they 
felt  their  wrongs,  and  how  earnestly  they  desired  a 
peaceful  restoration  of  reciprocal  confidence.  While 
Britain  would  have  only  to  seek  another  market  foi 
her  surplus  manufactures  and  India  goods,  the  Ameri- 
can merchant  sacrificed  nearly  his  whole  business. 
The  exchequer  might  perhaps  suffer  some  diminution 
in  the  revenue  from  tobacco,  but  the  planters  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  gave  up  the  entire  exchangeable 


CONGRESS    WILL    MAKE   THE   LAST    APPEAL.  151 

produce  of  their  estates.  The  cessation  of  the  export  CHAP. 
of  provisions  to  the  West  Indies,  of  flax-seed  to  Ire-  >^-Y— - 
land,  injured  the  Northern  provinces  very  deeply; 
and  yet  it  would  touch  only  the  British  merchants 
who  had  debts  to  collect  in  the 'West  Indies  or  Ire- 
land, or  the  English  owners  of  West  Indian  or  Irish 
estates.  Every  refusal  to  import  was  made  by  the 
colonist  at  the  cost  of  personal  comfort ;  every  omis- 
sion to  export  was  a  waste  of  the  resources  of  his 
family.  Moreover,  no  means  existed  of  enforcing 
the  agreement;  so  that  the  truest  patriots  would 
suffer  most.  And  yet  the  people  so  yearned  for  a 
bloodless  restoration  of  the  old  relations  with  Bri- 
tain, that  they  cheerfully  entered  on  the  experiment, 
in  the  hope  that  the  extreme  self-denial  of  the  country 
would  at  least  distress  British  commerce  enough  to 
bring  the  government  to  reflection. 

But  since  their  efforts  to  avert  civil  war  might 
fail,  John  Adams  expressed  his  anxiety  to  see  New 
England  provided  with  money  and  military  stores. 
Ward,  of  Rhode  Island,  regarded  America  as  the 
rising  power  that  was  to  light  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  to  freedom.  Samuel  Adams  urged  his  friends 
incessantly  to  study  the  art  of  war,  and  organize  re- 
sistance; for  he  would  never  admit  that  the  danger 
of  a  rupture  with  Britain  was  a  sufficient  plea  for 
giving  way.  "  I  would  advise,"  said  he,  "  persisting 
in  our  struggle  for  liberty,  though  it  were  revealed 
from  heaven  that  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  were 
to  perish,  and  only  one  of  a  thousand  to  survive  and 
retain  his  liberty.  One  such  freeman  must  possess 
nore  virtue,  and  enjoy  more  happiness,  than  a  thou- 
and  slaves;  and  let  him  propagate  his  like,  and 


152  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  transmit  to  them  what  he  hath  so  nobly  preserved." 
— v^  "  Delightful  as  peace  is,"  said  Dickinson,  "  it  will 
*  come  more  grateful,  by  being  unexpected."  Wash- 
ington, while  he  promoted  the  measures  of  congress, 
dared  not  hope  that  they  would  prove  effectual. 
When  Patrick  Henry  read  the  prophetic  words  of 
Hawley,  "  after  all  we  must  fight,"  he  raised  his 
hand,  and  with  the  entire  energy  of  his  nature 
called  God  to  witness  as  he  cried  out,  "  I  am  of  that 
man's  mind." 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

HOW  CATHOLIC  EMANCIPATION  BEGAN. 
OCTOBER,  1774. 

THE  congress   of  1774   contained  statesmen  of  the  CHAP. 
highest  order  of  wisdom.     For  eloquence   Patrick  ^^ 
Henry  was  unrivalled;  next  to  him,  the  elder  Rut-  1174* 
ledge  of  South  Carolina  was  the  ablest  in  debate ; 
"but  if  you  speak  of  solid  information  and  sound 
judgment,"  said  Patrick  Henry,  "-Washington  is  un- 
questionably the  greatest  man  of  them  all." 

While  the  delegates  of  the  twelve  colonies  were 
in  session  in  Philadelphia,  ninety  of  the  members  just 
elected  to  the  Massachusetts  assembly  appeared  on 
Wednesday  the  fifth  of  October  at  the  court  house 
in  Salem.  After  waiting  two  days  for  the  governor, 
they  passed  judgment  on  his  unconstitutional  procla- 
mation against  their  meeting,  and  resolving  them- 
selves into  a  provincial  congress,  they  adjourned  to 
Concord.  There,  on  Tuesday  the  eleventh,  about  two 
hundred  and  sixty  members  took  their  seats,  and 
elected  John  Hancock  their  president.  On  the  four- 
teenth they  sent  a  message  to  the  governor,  that  for 


154  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  want  of  a  general  assembly  they  had  convened  in 
— ^-  congress ;  and  they  remonstrated  against  his  hostile 
]Oct4'  PreParati°ns.  A  committee  from  Worcester  county 
made  similar  representations.  "  It  is  in  your  power 
to  prevent  civil  war,  and  to  establish  your  character 
as  a  wise  and  humane  man,"  said  the  chairman.  "  For 
God's  sake,"  replied  Gage,  in  great  trepidation,  "  what 
would  you  have  me  do  ? "  for  he  vacillated  between 
a  hope  that  the  king  would  give  way,  and  a  willing- 
ness to  be  the  instrument  of  his  obstinacy.  To  the 
president  of  the  continental  congress,  he  expressed 
the  wish  that  the  disputes  between  the  mother  coun- 
try and  the  colonies  might  terminate  like  lovers' 
quarrels ;  but  he  did  not  conceal  his  belief  that  its 
proceedings  would  heighten  the  anger  of  the  king. 

To  the  provincial  congress,  which  had  again  ad- 
journed from  Concord  to  Cambridge,  Gage  made 
answer  by  recriminations.  They  on  their  part  were 
surrounded  by  difficulties.  They  wished  to  remove  the 
people  of  Boston  into  the  country,  but  found  it  im- 
practicable. A  committee  appointed. on  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  October  to  consider  the  proper  time  to  pro- 
vide a  stock  of  powder,  ordnance,  and  ordnance  storesj 
reported  on  the  same  day,  that  the  proper  time  was 
now.  Upon  the  debate  for  raising  money  to  prepare 
for  the  crisis,  one  member  proposed  to  appropriate  a 
thousand  pounds,  another  two  thousand ;  a  commit- 
tee reported  a  sum  of  less  than  ninety  thousand  dol- 
lars, as  a  preparation  against  a  warlike  empire,  flushed 
with  victory,  and  able  to  spend  twenty  million  pounds 
sterling  a  year  in  the  conduct  of  a  war.  They  elected 
three  general  officers  by  ballot.  A  committee  of 
safety,  Hancock  and  Warren  being  of  the  number, 


HOW    CATHOLIC    EMANCIPATION    BEGAN.  155 

was  invested  with  power  to  alarm  and  muster  the  CHAP. 
militia  of  the  province,  of  whom  one-fourth  were  — ^- 
to  hold  themselves  ready  to  march  at  a  minute's 
notice. 

In  Connecticut,  which,  from  its  compactness,  num- 
bers, and  wealth,  was  second  only  to  Massachusetts  in 
military  resources,  the  legislature  of  1Y74  provided  for 
effectively  organizing  the  militia,  prohibited  the  im- 
portation of  slaves,  and  ordered  the  several  towns  to 
provide  double  the  usual  quantity  of  powder,  balls, 
and  flints.  They  also  directed  the  issue  of  fifteen 
thousand  pounds  in  bills  of  credit  of  the  colony,  and 
made  a  small  increase  of  the  taxes.  This  was  the 
first  issue  of  paper  money  in  the  colonies  preparatory 
to  war. 

The  congress  of  Massachusetts,  in  like  manner, 
directed  the  people  of  the  province  to  perfect  them- 
selves in  military  skill,  and  each  town  to  provide  a 
full  stock  of  arms  and  ammunition.  Having  voted 
to  pay  no  more  money  to  the  royal  collector,  they 
chose  a  receiver-general  of  their  own,  and  instituted 
a  system  of  provincial  taxation.  They  appointed 
executive  committees  of  safety,  of  correspondence, 
and  of  supplies.  As  the  continental  congress  would 
not  sanction  their  resuming  the  charter  from  Charles 
the  First,  they  adhered  as  nearly  as  possible  to  that 
granted  by  William  and  Mary ;  and  summoned  the 
councillors  duly  elected  under  that  charter,  ttf  give 
attendance  on  the  fourth  Wednesday  of  November, 
fco  which  time  they  adjourned.  To  their  next  meet- 
ing they  referred  the  consideration  of  the  propriety 
of  sending  agents  to  Canada. 

The  American  revolution  was  destined  on  every 


156  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  side  to  lead  to  the  solution  of  the  highest  questions  of 

XIV 

— ^  state.  Principles  of  eternal  truth,  which  in  their  uni- 
versa^J  are  superior  to  sects  and  separate  creeds, 
were  rapidly  effacing  the  prejudices  of  the  past.  The 
troubles  of  the  thirteen  colonies  led  the  court  of 
Great  Britain  to  its  first  step  in  the  emancipation  of 
Catholics  ;  and  with  no  higher  object  in  view  than  to 
strengthen  the  authority  of  the  king  in  America,  the 
Quebec  act  of  1774  began  that  series  of  concessions, 
which  did  not  cease  till  the  British  parliament  itself, 
and  the  high  offices  of  administration  have  become 
accessible  to  "papists." 

In  the  belief  that  the  loyalty  of  its  possessions 
had  been  promoted  by  a  dread  of  the  French  settle- 
ments on  their  northern  and  western  frontier,  Britain 
sought  to  create  under  its  own  auspices  a  distinct 
empire,  suited  to  coerce  her  original  colonies,  and  re- 
strain them  from  aspiring  to  independence.  For  this 
end  it  united  into  one  province  the  territory  of 
Canada,  together  with  all  the  country  northwest  of 
the  Ohio  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior  and  the 
Mississippi,  and  consolidated  all  authority  over  this 
boundless  region  in  the  hands  of  the  executive  power. 
The  Catholics  were  not  displeased  that  the  promise  of 
a  representative  assembly  was  not  kept.  In  1763  they 
had  all  been  disfranchised  in  a  land  where  there  were 
few  Protestants,  except  attendants  on  the  army  and 
government  officials.  A  representative  assembly,  to 
which  none  but  Protestants  could  be  chosen,  would 
have  subjected  almost  the  whole  body  of  resident  in- 
habitants to  an  oligarchy,  hateful  by  their  race  and 
religion ;  their  supremacy  as  conquerors,  and  their 
selfishness.  The  Quebec  act  authorized  the  crown  to 


HOW    CATHOLIC    EMANCIPATION    BEGAN.  157 

confer  posts  of  honor  and  of  business  upon  Catholics  ;  CHAP. 
and  they  chose  rather  to  depend  on  the  clemency  of  ^v— 
the  king,  than  to  have  an  exclusively  Protestant  par- 
liament,  like  that  of  Ireland.  This  limited  political 
toleration  left  no  room  for  the  sentiment  of  patri- 
otism. The  French  Canadians  of  that  day  could  not 
persuade  themselves  that  they  had  a  country.  They 
would  have  desired  an  assembly,  to  which  they  should 
be  eligible ;  but  since  that  was  not  to  be  obtained, 
they  accepted  their  partial  enfranchisement  by  the 
king,  as  a  boon  to  a  conquered  people. 

The  owners  of  estates  were  further  gratified  by 
the  restoration  of  the  French  system  of  law.  The 
English  emigrants  might  complain  of  the  want  of 
jury  trials  in  civil  processes ;  but  the  French  Cana- 
dians were  grateful  for  relief  from  statutes  which 
they  did  not  comprehend,  and  from  the  chicanery  of 
unfamiliar  courts.  The  nobility  of  New  France,  who 
were  accustomed  to  arms,  were  still  further  conciliat- 
ed by  the  proposal  to  enroll  Canadian  battalions,  in 
which  they  could  hold  commissions  on  equal  terms 
with  English  officers.  Here  also  the  inspiration  of 
nationality  was  wanting ;  and  the  whole  population 
could  never  crowd  to  the  British  flag,  as  they  had 
rallied  to  the  lilies  of  France.  There  would  remain 
always  the  sentiment,  that  they  were  waging  battle 
not  for  themselves,  and  defending  a  government  which 
was  not  their  own. 

The  great  dependence  of  the  crown  was  on  the 
clergy.  The  capitulation  of  New  France  had  guaran- 
teed to  them  freedom  of  public  worship ;  but  the 
laws  for  their  support  were  held  to  be  no  longer  valid. 
By  the  Quebec  act  they  were  confirmed  in  the  posses- 

VOL.    VII.  14 


158  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  sion  of  their  ancient  churches  and  their  revenues  ;  so 
* — » — '  that  the  Roman  Catholic  worship  was  as  effectually 
established  in  Canada,  as  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Scotland.  When  Carleton  returned  to  his  govern- 
ment, bearing  this  great  measure  of  conciliation,  of 
which  he  was  known  to  have  been  the  adviser,  he 
was  welcomed  by  the  Catholic  bishop  and  priests  of 
Quebec  with  professions  of  loyalty;  and  the  mem- 
ory of  Thurlow  and  Wedderburn,  who  carried  the 
act  through  parliament,  is  gratefully  embalmed  in 
Canadian  history.  And  yet  the  clergy  were  con- 
scious that  the  concession  of  the  great  privileges 
which  they  now  obtained,  was  but  an  act  of  worldly 
policy,  mainly  due  to  the  disturbed  state  of  the  Prot- 
estant colonies.  Their  joy  at  relief  was  sincere,  but 
still,  for  the  cause  of  Great  Britain,  Catholic  Canada 
could  not  uplift  the  banner  of  the  King  of  Heaven, 
or  seek  the  perils  of  martyrdom.  The  tendency  to 
revolution  on  the  part  of  its  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy 
was  restrained,  but  England  never  acquired  the  im- 
passioned support  of  its  religious  zeal. 

Such  was  the  frame  of  mind  of  the  French  Cana- 
dians when  the  American  congress  sent  among  them 
its  appeal.  The  time  was  come  for  applying  the  new 
principle  of  the  power  of  the  people  to  the  old  divi- 
sions in  Christendom  between  the  Catholic  and  the 
Protestant  world.  Protestantism,  in  the  sphere  of 
politics,  had  hitherto  been  the  representative  of  that 
increase  of  popular  liberty  which  had  grown  out 
of  free  inquiry ;  while  the  Catholic  Church,  under  the 
early  influence  of  Roman  law,  had  inclined  to  mo- 
narchical power.  These  relations  were  now  to  be 
modified. 


HOW    CATHOLIC    EMANCIPATION    BEGAN.  159 

The  Catholic  church  asserted  the  unity,  the  uni-  CHAP. 
versality,  and  the  unchangeableness  of  truth ;  and 
this  principle,  however  it  may  have  been  made 
subservient  to  ecclesiastical  organization,  tyranny, 
or  superstition,  rather  demanded  than  opposed  uni- 
versal emancipation  and  brotherhood.  Yet  the  thir- 
teen colonies  were  all  Protestant ;  even  in  Maryland 
the  Catholics  formed  but  an  eighth,  or  perhaps  not 
more  than  a  twelfth,  part  of  the  population ;  their 
presence  in  other  provinces  wras  hardly  perceptible, 
except  in  Pennsylvania.  The  members  of  congress 
had  not  wholly  purged  themselves  of  Protestant 
bigotry.  Something  of  this  appeared  in  their  reso- 
lutions of  rights,  and  in  their  address  to  the  people  of 
British  America.  In  the  address  to  the  people  of 
Great  Britain,  it  was  even  said  that  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic religion  had  "dispersed  impiety,  bigotry,  per- 
secution, murder,  and  rebellion  through  every  part 
of  the  world."  But  the  desire  of  including  Canada  in 
the  confederacy  compelled  the  Protestants  of  America 
to  adopt  and  promulgate  the  principle  of  religious 
equality  and  freedom.  In  the  masterly  address  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  province  of  Quebec,  drawn  by 
Dickinson,  all  old  religious  jealousies  were  condemned 
as  low-minded  infirmities ;  and  the  Swiss  cantons  were 
cited  as  examples  of  a  union  composed  of  Catholic 
and  Protestant  states. 

Appeals  were  also  made  to  the  vanity  and  the 
pride  of  the  French  population.  After  a  clear  and 
precise  analysis  of  the  Quebec  act,  and  the  contrast 
of  its-  provisions  with  English  liberties,  the  shade  of 
Montesquieu  was  evoked,  as  himself  saying  to  the 
Canadians :  "  Seize  the  opportunity  presented  to  you 


160  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  by  Providence  itself.  You  have  been  conquered  into 
^r-l'  liberty,  if  you  act  as  you  ought.  This  work  is  not  of 
man.  You  are  a  small  people,  compared  to  those  who 
with  open  arms  invite  you  into  a  fellowship.  The  in- 
juries of  Boston  have  roused  and  associated  every  colo- 
ny from  Nova  Scotia  to  Georgia.  Your  province  is  the 
only  link  wanting  to  complete  the  bright  and  strong 
chain  of  union.  Nature  has  joined  your  country  to 
theirs  ;  do  you  join  your  political  interests  ;  for  their 
own  sakes  they  never  will  desert  or  betray  you.  The 
happiness  of  a  people  inevitably  depends  on  their 
liberty,  and  their  spirit  to  assert  it.  The  value  and 
extent  of  the  advantages  tendered  to  you  are  im- 
mense. Heaven  grant  you  may  not  discover  them 
to  be  blessings  after  they  have  bid  you  an  eternal 
adieu." 

With  such  persuasions,  the  congress  unanimously 
invited  the  Canadians  to  "  accede  to  their  confed- 
eration." Whether  the  invitation  should  be  ac- 
cepted or  repelled,  the  old  feud  between  the  nations 
which  adhered  to  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  and 
the  free  governments  which  had  sprung  from  Prot- 
estantism, was  fast  coming  to  an  end. 


CHAPTEE   XV. 

THE  GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA  NULLIFIES  THE  QUEBEC  ACT. 
OCTOBER — NOVEMBER,  1774. 

THE  attempt  to  extend  the  jurisdiction  of  Quebec  to  CHAP. 
the  Ohio  river  had  no  sanction  in  English  history,  — • — 
and  was  resisted  by  the  older  colonies,  especially  by  1774> 
Virginia.     The  interest  of  the  crown  offices  in  the 
adjacent  provinces   was   also  at   variance  with  the 
policy  of  parliament. 

No  royal  governor  showed  more  rapacity  in  the  use 
of  official  power  than  Lord  Dunmore.  He  had  reluc- 
tantly left  New  York,  where,  during  his  short  career, 
he  had  acquired  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land,  and  him- 
self acting  as  chancellor,  was  preparing  to  decide  in 
his  own  court  in  his  own  favor,  a  large  and  unfounded 
claim  which  he  had  preferred  against  the  lieutenant 
governor.  Upon  entering  on  the  government  of  Vir- 
ginia, his  passion  for  land  and  fees,  outweighing  the 
proclamation  of  the  king  and  reiterated  and  most 
positive  instructions  from  the  secretary  of  state,  he 
advocated  the  claims  of  the  colony  to  the  West ;  and 
was  himself  a  partner  in  two  immense  purchases  of 
YOL  vn.  14* 


162  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  land  from  the  Indians  in  southern  Illinois.     In  1773. 

XV 

-  —  r-~  his  agents,  the  Bullets,  made  surveys  at  the  falls  of  the 
1774.  Ohio  .  an(j  a  p^  of  Louisville,  and  of  the  towns  op- 


site  Cincinnati,  are  now  held  under  his  warrant.  The 
area  of  the  Ancient  Dominion  expanded  with  his  cu- 
pidity. 

Pittsburg,  and  the  country  as  far  up  the  Monon- 
gahela  as  Redstone  Old  Fort,  formed  the  rallying 
point  for  western  emigration  and  Indian  trade.  It 
was  a  part  of  the  county  of  Westmoreland,  in  Penn- 
sylvania. Suddenly,  and  without  proper  notice  to 
the  council  of  that  province,  Dunmore  extended  his 
own  jurisdiction  over  the  tempting  and  well-peopled 
region.  He  found  a  willing  instrument  in  one  John 
Connolly,  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  a  physician,  land- 
jobber,  and  subservient  political  intriguer,  who  had 
travelled  much  in  the  Ohio  valley,  both  by  water 
and  land.  Commissioned  by  Dunmore  as  captain- 
commandant  for  Pittsburg  and  its  dependencies,  that 
is  to  say  of  all  the  western  country,  Connolly  opened 
the  year  1774  with  a  proclamation  of  his  authority  ; 
and  he  directed  a  muster  of  the  militia.  The  western 
people,  especially  the  emigrants  from  Maryland  and 
Virginia,  spurned  the  meek  tenets  of  the  Quakers,  and 
inclined  to  the  usurpation.  The  governor  and  council  of 
Pennsylvania  took  measures  to  support  their  indisputa- 
ble right.  This  Dunmore  passionately  resented  as  a 
personal  insult,  and  would  neither  listen  to  irrefragable 
arguments,  nor  to  candid  offers  of  settlement  by  joint 
commissioners,  nor  to  the  personal  application  of  two 
of  the  council  of  Pennsylvania.  Jurisdiction  was  op- 
posed to  jurisdiction;  arrests  were  followed  by  coun- 
ter arrests  ;  the  country  on  the  Monongahela,  then 


VIRGINIA   NULLIFIES    THE   QUEBEC    ACT.  163 

the  great  avenue  to  the  West,  became  a  scene  of  con-  CHAP. 
fusion. 

The  territory  north  and  west  of  the  Ohio,  belonged  1 7  7  4 
by  act  of  parliament  to  the  province  of  Quebec ; 
yet  Dunmore  professed  to  conduct  the  government 
and  grant  the  lands  on  the  Scioto,  the  Wabash  and 
the  Illinois.  South  of  the  Ohio  river  Franklin's  in- 
choate province  of  Vandalia  stretched  from  the  Alle- 
ghanies  to  Kentucky  river  ;  the  treaty  at  Fort  Stan- 
wix  bounded  Virginia  by  the  Tennessee  ;  the  treaty 
at  Lochaber  carried  its  limit  only  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Great  Kanawha.  The  king's  instructions  confin- 
ed settlements  to  the  east  of  the  mountains.  There 
was  no  one,  therefore,  having  authority  to  give  an 
undisputed  title  to  any  land  west  of  the  AUeghanies, 
or  to  restrain  the  restlessness  of  the  American  emi- 
grants. With  the  love  of  wandering  that  formed  a 
part  of  their  nature,  the  hardy  backwoodsman,  clad 
in  a  hunting  shirt  and  deerskin  leggins,  armed  with  a 
rifle,  a  powder  horn,  and  a  pouch  for  shot  and  bul- 
lets, a  hatchet  and  a  hunter's  knife,  descended  the 
mountains  in  quest  of  more  distant  lands  which  he 
forever  imagined  to  be  richer  and  lovelier  than  those 
which  he  knew.  Wherever  he  fixed  his  halt,  the 
hatchet  hewed  logs  for  his  cabin,  and  blazed  trees  of 
the  forest  kept  the  record  of  his  title  deeds ;  nor  did 
he  conceive  that  a  British  government  had  any  right 
to  forbid  the  occupation  of  lands,  which  were  either 
uninhabited  or  only  broken  by  a  few  scattered  vil- 
lages of  savages,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  but  little 
removed  above  the  brute  creation. 

The  Indians  themselves  were  regardless  of  trea- 
ties.    Notwithstanding  the  agreement  with  Bouquet 


164  AMERICAN   INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  they  still  held  young  men  and  women  of  Virginia  in 
^^  captivity;  and  the  annals  of  the  wilderness  never 
1774>  ceased  to  record  their  barbarous  murders.  The  wan- 
derer in  search  of  a  new  home  on  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  risked  his  life  at  every  step  ;  so  that  a 
system  of  independent  defence  and  private  war  be- 
came the  custom  of  the  backwoods.  The  settler  had 
every  motive  to  preserve  peace  ;  yet  he  could  not  be 
turned  from  his  purpose  by  fear,  and  trusted  for 
security  in  the  forest  to  his  perpetual  readiness  for 
self-defence.  Not  a  year  passed  away  without  a  mas- 
sacre of  pioneers.  Near  the  end  of  1773,  Daniel 
Boone  would  have  taken  his  wife  and  children  to 
Kentucky.  At  Powell's  valley,  he  was  joined  by 
five  families  and  forty  men.  On  or  near  the  tenth 
of  October,  as  they  approached  Cumberland  Gap, 
the  young  men  who  had  charge  of  the  pack-horses 
and  cattle  in  the  rear,  were  suddenly  attacked  by 
Indians ;  one  only  escaped ;  the  remaining  six,  among 
whom  was  Boone's  eldest  son,  were  killed  on  the 
spot ;  so  that  the  survivors  of  the  party  were  forced 
to  turn  back  to  the  settlements  on  Clinch  river.  When 
the  Cherokees  were  summoned  from  Virginia  to  give 
up  the  offenders,  they  shifted  the  accusation  from  one 
tribe  to  another,  and  the  application  for  redress  had 
no  effect ;  but  one  of  those  who  had  escaped,  mur- 
dered an  Indian  at  a  horse  race  on  the  frontier,  not- 
withstanding the  interposition  of  all  around.  This 
was  the  first  Indian  blood  shed  by  a  white  man  from 
the  time  of  the  treaty  of  Bouquet. 

In  the  beginning  of  February,  1774,  the  Indians 
killed  six  white  men  and  two  negroes  ;  and  near  the 
end  of  the  same  month,  they  seized  a  trading  canoe 


VIRGINIA   NULLIFIES    THE    QUEBEC    ACT.  165 

on  the  Ohio,  killed  the  men  on  board,  and  carried  CHAP. 
their  goods  to  the  Shawanese   towns.      In   March,  — ,— 
Michael  Cresap,  after  a  skirmish,  and  the  loss  of  one  1774- 
man  on  each  side,  took  from  a  party  of  Indians  five 
loaded  canoes.     It  became  known  that  messages  were 
passing  between  the  tribes  of  the  Ohio,  the  western 
Indians,  and  the  Cherokees.     In  this  state  of  affairs, 
Connolly,  from  Pittsburg,  on  the  twenty-first  of  April, 
wrote  to  the  inhabitants  of  "Wheeling  to  be  on  the 
alert. 

Incensed  by  the  succession  of  murders,  the  back- 
woodsmen, who  were  hunters  like  the  Indians  and 
equally  ungovernable,  were  forming  war  parties  along 
the  frontier  from  the  Cherokee  country  to  Pennsyl- 
vania. When  the  letter  of  Connolly  fell  into  Cresap's 
hands,  he  and  his  party  esteemed  themselves  author- 
ized to  engage  in  private  war,  and  on  the  twenty-sixth 
of  April,  they  fired  upon  two  Indians  who  were  with  a 
white  man  in  a  canoe  on  the  Ohio,  and  killed  them 
both.  Just  before  the  end  of  April,  five  Delawares 
and  Shawanese,  with  their  women,  among  whom 
was  one  at  least  of  the  same  blood  with  Logan,  hap- 
pening to  encamp  near  Yellow  Creek,  on  the  site  of 
the  present  town  of  Wellsville,  were  enticed  across 
.  the  river  by  a  trader ;  and  when  they  had  become 
intoxicated,  were  murdered  in  cold  blood.  Two 
others,  crossing  the  Ohio  to  look  after  their  friends, 
were  shot  down  as  soon  as  they  came  ashore.  At 
this,  five  more,  who  were  following,  turned  their 
course ;  but  being  immediately  fired  at,  two  were 
killed  and  two  wounded.  The  day  following,  a 
Shawanese  was  killed,  and  another  man  wounded. 
The  whole  number  of  Indians  killed  between  the 


166  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  twenty -first  of  April  and  the  end  of  the  month,  was 

' — r^  about  thirteen. 

1774-  At  the  tidings  of  this  bloodshed,  fleet  messengers 
of  the  Red  Men  ran  with  the  wail  of  war  to  the 
Muskingum,  and  to  the  Shawanese  villages  in  Ohio. 
The  alarm  of  the  emigrants  increased  along  the  fron- 
tier from  the  Watauga  to  the  lower  Monongahela ; 
and  frequent  expresses  reached  Williamsburg,  en- 
treating assistance.  The  governor,  following  an  inti- 
mation from  the  assembly  in  May,  ordered  the  militia 
of  the  frontier  counties  to  be  embodied  for  defence. 
Meantime  Logan's  soul  called  within  him  for  revenge. 
In  his  early  life  he  had  dwelt  near  the  beautiful 
plain  of  Shamokin,  which  overhangs  the  Susque- 
hanna  and  the  vale  of  Sunbury.  There  Zinzendorf 
introduced  the  Cayuga  chief,  his  father,  to  the  Mo- 
ravians ;  and  there,  three  years  later,  Brainerd  wore 
away  life  as  a  missionary  among  the  fifty  cabins  of  the 
village.  Logan  had  grown  up  as  the  friend  of  white 
men ;  but  the  spirits  of  his  kindred  clamored  for 
blood.  With  chosen  companions,  he  went  out  upon 
the  war  path,  and  added  scalp  to  scalp,  till  the 
number  was  also  thirteen.  "  Now,"  said  the  chief, 
"  I  am  satisfied  for  the  loss  of  my  relations,  and  will 
sit  still." 

But  the  Shawanese,  the  most  warlike  of  the  tribes, 
prowled  from  the  Alleghany  river  to  what  is  now 
Sullivan  county  in  Tennessee.  One  of  them  returned 
with  the  scalps  of  forty  men,  women,  and  children. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  party  of  white  men,  with  Dun- 
m  ore's  permission,  destroyed  an  Indian  village  on  the 
Muskingum. 

To  restrain  the  backwoodsmen  and  end  the  mise- 


VIRGINIA    NULLIFIES    THE    QUEBEC    ACT.  167 

ries  which  distracted  the  frontier,  and  to  look  after  CHAP. 
his  own  interests  and  his  agents,  Dunmore,  with  the  ^-^~ 
hearty  approbation  of  the  colony,  called  out  the 
militia  of  the  southwest,  and  himself  repaired  to 
Pittsburg.  In  September  he  renewed  peace  with 
the  Dela  wares  and  the  Six  Nations.  Then,  with 
about  twelve  hundred  men  from  the  counties  around 
him,  he  descended  the  Ohio ;  and  without  waiting,  as 
he  had  promised,  at  the  mouth  of  the  little  Kanawha, 
for  the  men  from  the  southwestern  counties  of  Vir- 
ginia, he  crossed  the  river  and  proceeded  to  the 
Shawanese  towns,  which  he  found  deserted. 

The  summons  from  Dunmore,  borne  beyond  the 
Blue  Kidge,  roused  the  settlers  on  the  Green  Briar, 
the  New  River,  and  the  Holston.  The  Watauga 
republicans  also,  who  never  owned  English  rule,  and 
never  required  English  protection,  heard  the  cry  of 
their  brethren  in  distress ;  and  a  company  of  nearly 
fifty  of  them,  under  the  command  of  Evan  Shelby, 
with  James  Robertson  and  Valentine  Sevier  as  ser- 
geants, marched  as  volunteers.  The  name  of  every 
one  of  them  is  preserved  and  cherished.  Leaving 
home  in  August,  they  crossed  the  New  river,  and 
joined  the  army  of  western  Virginia  at  Camp  Union, 
on  the  Great  Levels  of  Green  Briar.  From  that 
place,  now  called  Lewisburg,  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Great  Kanawha,  the  distance  is  about  one  hundred 
and  sixty  miles.  At  that  time  there  was  not  even 
a  trace  over  the  rugged  mountains  ;  but  the  gallant 
young  woodsmen  who  formed  the  advance  party, 
moved  expeditiously  with  their  packhorses  and 
droves  of  cattle  through  the  old  home  of  the  wolf, 
the  deer,  and  the  panther.  After  a  fortnight's  strug- 


168  AMERICAN   INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  gle,  they  left  behind  them  the  last  rocky  masses  of 

^^^  the    hill-tops ;   and    passing    between    the    gigantic 

Sept.'  growtn  °f  primeval  forests  where,  in  that  autumnal 

season,  the  golden  hue  of  the  linden,  the  sugar  tree, 

and  the  hickory,  contrasted  with  the  glistening  green 

of  the  laurel,  the   crimson  of  the  sumach,  and  the 

shadows  of  the  sombre  hemlock,  they  descended  to 

where  the  valley  of  Elk  river  widens  into  a  plain. 

Oct.    There  they  paused  only  to  build  canoes  ;  having  been 

joined  by  a  second  party,  so  that  they  made  a  force 

of  nearly  eleven  hundred  men,  they  descended  the 

Kanawha,  and  on  the  sixth  of  October  encamped  on 

Point  Pleasant,  near  its  junction  with  the  Ohio.     But 

no  message  reached  them  from  Dunmore. 

Of  all  the  Western  Indians,  the  Shawanese  were 
the  fiercest.  They  despised  other  warriors,  red  or 
white ;  and  made  a  boast  of  having  killed  ten  times 
as  many  of  the  English  as  any  other  tribe.  They 
stole  through  the  forest  with  Mingoes  and  Delawares, 
to  attack  the  army  of  southwestern  Virginia. 

At  daybreak  on  Monday,  the  tenth  'of  October, 
two  young  men,  rambling  up  the  Ohio  in  search 
of  deer,  fell  on  the  camp  of  the  Indians,  who 
had  crossed  the  river  the  evening  before,  and  were 
just  preparing  for  battle.  One  of  the  two  was  in- 
stantly shot  down ;  the  other  fled  with  the  intel- 
ligence to  the  camp.  In  two  or  three  minutes  after, 
Robertson  and  Sevier  of  Shelby's  company  came  in 
and  confirmed  the  account.  Colonel  Andrew  Lewis, 
who  had  the  command,  instantly  ordered  out  two 
divisions,  each  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men ;  the 
Augusta  troops,  under  his  brother  Charles  Lewis,  the 
Botetourt  troops  under  Fleming.  Just  as  the  sun 


VIRGINIA    NULLIFIES    THE    QUEBEC    ACT.  169 

was  rising,  the  Indians  opened  a  heavy  fire  on  both  CHAP. 
parties;  wounding  Charles  Lewis  mortally.  Flem- 
ing  was  wounded  thrice;  and  the  Virginians  must 
have  given  way,  but  for  successive  reinforcements 
from  the  camp.  "  Be  strong,"  cried  Cornstalk,  the 
chief  of  the  Red  Men ;  and  he  animated  them  by  his 
example.  Till  the  hour  of  noon,  the  combatants 
fought  from  behind  trees,  never  above  twenty  yards 
apart,  often  within  six,  and  sometimes  near  enough 
to  strike  with  the  tomahawk.  At  length  the  Indians, 
under  the  protection  of  the  close  underwood  and 
fallen  trees,  retreated,  till  tliey  gained  an  advan- 
tageous line  extending  from  the  Ohio  to  the  Kanawha. 
A  desultory  fire  was  kept  up  on  both  sides  till  after 
sunset,  when  under  the  favor  of  night,  the  savages 
fled  across  the  river.  The  victory  cost  the  Virginians 
three  colonels  of  militia,  forty-six  men  killed  and 
about  eighty  wounded. 

This  battle  was  the  most  bloody  and  best  con- 
tested in  the  annals  of  forest  warfare.  The  number 
of  the  Red  Men  who  were  engaged,  was  probably 
not  less  than  eight  hundred ;  how  many  of  them  fell 
was  never  ascertained. 

The  heroes  of  that  day  proved  themselves  worthy 
to  found  states.  Among  them  were  Isaac  Shelby,  the 
first  governor  of  Kentucky ;  William  Campbell ;  the 
brave  George  Matthews ;  Fleming ;  Andrew  Moore, 
afterwards  a  senator  of  the  United  States ;  Evan 
Shelby,  James  Robertson,  and  Valentine  Sevier. 
Their  praise  resounded  not  in  the  backwoods  only, 
but  through  all  Virginia. 

Soon  after  the  battle  a  reenforcement  of-  three 
hundred  troops  arrived  from  Fincastle.  Following 

VOL.    VII.  15 


170  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  orders  tardily  received  from  Dunmore,  the  little  army 
— v— *  leaving  a  garrison  at  Point  Pleasant,  dashed  across 
}Q™  the  Ohio  to  defy  new  battles.  After  a  march  of  eighty 
miles  through  an  untrodden  wilderness,  on  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  October  they  encamped  on  the  banks  of 
Congo  Creek  in  Pickaway,  near  old  Chillicothe.  The 
Indians,  disheartened  at  the  junction,  threw  them- 
selves on  the  mercy  of  the  English ;  and  at  Camp 
Charlotte,  which  stood  on  the  left  bank  of  Sippo 
Creek,  about  seven  miles  southeast  of  Circleville, 
Dunmore  admitted  them  to  a  conference.  Logan  did 
not  appear;  but  through  an  Indian  interpreter  he 
sent  this  message : 

"  I  appeal  to  any  white  man  to  say  if  he  ever 
entered  Logan's  cabin,  and  I  gave  him  not  meat ;  if 
he  ever  came  naked,  and  I  clothed  him  not.  In  the 
course  of  the  last  war  Logan  remained  in  his  cabin, 
an  advocate  for  peace.  Such  was  my  love  for  the 
whites  that  the  rest  of  my  nation  pointed  at  me,  and 
said,  i  Logan  is  the  friend  of  white  men.'  I  should 
have  ever  lived  with  them,  had  it  not  been  for  one 
man,  who,  last  spring,  cut  off,  unprovoked,  all  the 
relations  of  Logan,  not  sparing  women  and  children. 
There  runs  not  a  drop  of  my  blood  in  the  veins  of 
any  living  creature.  This  called  upon  me  for  revenge. 
I  have  sought  it;  I  have  killed  many,  and  fully 
glutted  my  revenge.  For  my  nation,  I  rejoice  in  the 
beams  of  peace ;  but  nothing  I  have  said  proceeds 
from  fear!  Logan  disdains  the  thought!  He  will 
not  turn  on  his  heel  to  save  his  life !  Who  is  there  to 
mourn  for  Logan  ?  Not  one." 

Before  the  council  was  brought  to  a  close,  all 
differences  were  adjusted.  The  Shawanese  agreed  to 


VIRGINIA   NULLIFIES    THE   QUEBEC    ACT.  171 

deliver  up  their  prisoners  without  reserve ;  to  restore  CHAP. 
all  horses  and  other  property  which  they  had  carried  ^v— 
off;  to  hunt  no  more  on  the  Kentucky  side  of  the  IQ™' 
Ohio ;   to  molest  no  boats  passing  on  the  river ;  to 
regulate  their  trade  by  the  king's  instructions,  and  to 
deliver  up  hostages.     Virginia  has  left  on  record  her 
judgment,  that  Dunmore's  conduct  in  this  campaign 
was  "truly  noble,  wise,  and  spirited."     The  results 
inured  exclusively  to  the  benefit  of  America.     The 
Indians  desired  peace ;  the  rancor  of  the  white  people 
changed    to    confidence,   and    the   Virginian   army, 
appearing  as  umpire  in  the  valley  of  the  Scioto,  nul- 
lified the  statute  which  extended  the  jurisdiction  of 
Quebec  to  the  Ohio. 

The  western  Virginians,  moreover,  halting  at  Fort  Nov. 
Gower  on  the  north  of  the  Ohio,  on  the  fifth  of 
November,  took  their  part  in  considering  the  griev- 
ances of  their  country.  They  were  "  blessed  with  the 
talents  "  to  bear  all  hardships  of  the  woods ;  to  pass 
weeks  comfortably  without  bread  or  salt;  for  dress, 
to  be  satisfied  with  a  blanket,  or  a  hunting  shirt  and 
skins;  to  sleep  with  no  covering  but  heaven;  to 
march  further  in  a  day  than  any  men  in  the  world, 
and  to  use  the  rifle  with  a  precision  that  to  all  but 
themselves  was  a  miracle.  For  three  months  they 
had  heard  nothing  from  the  east,  where  some  jealousy 
might  arise  of  so  large  a  body  of  armed  men  under  a 
leader  like  Dunmore.  They,  therefore,  held  them- 
selves bound  to  publish  their  sentiments.  Professing 
2eal  for  the  honor  of  America  and  especially  Vir- 
ginia, they  promised  continued  allegiance  to  the  king, 
if  he  would  but  reign  over  them  as  "  a  brave  and 
free  people."  "  But,"  said  they, "  as  attachment  to  the 


172  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

°xvP'  real  interests  and  just  rights  of  America  outweigh 
^  every  other  consideration,  we  resolve  that   we  will 

1774. 

•  exert  every  power  within  us  for  the  defence  of 
American  liberty,  when  regularly  called  forth  by  the 
unanimous  voice  of  our  countrymen." 

America  contrasted  the  regiments  of  regulars  at 
Boston,  ingloriously  idle  and  having  no  purpose  but 
to  enslave  a  self-protected  province,  with  the  noble 
Virginians  braving  danger  at  the  call  of  a  royal 
governor,  and  pouring  out  their  blood  to  win  the 
victory  for  western  civilization. 


CHAPTEE    XVI. 

THE  FOURTEENTH  PARLIAMENT  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN. 
OCTOBER — DECEMBER,  1774. 

"  IT  is  the  united  voice  of  America  to  preserve  their  CHAP. 
freedom,  or  lose  their  lives  in  defence  of  it.  Their  ' — ^ 
resolutions  are  not  the  effect  of  inconsiderate  rashness, 
but  the  sound  result  of  sober  inquiry  and  delibera- 
tion. The  true  spirit  of  liberty  was  never  so  univer- 
sally diffused  through  all  ranks  and  orders  of  people 
in  any  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  it  now  is 
through  all  North  America.  If  the  late  acts  of  par- 
liament are  not  to  be  repealed,  the  wisest  step  for 
both  countries  is  to  separate,  and  not  to  spend  their 
blood  and  treasure  in  destroying  each  other.  It  is 
barely  possible  that  Great  Britain  may  depopulate 
North  America;  she  never  can  conquer  the  inhab- 
itants." So  wrote  Joseph  Warren,  and  his  words 
were  the  mirror  of  the  passions  of  his  countrymen. 
They  were  addressed  to  the  younger  Quincy,  who 
as  a  private  man  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  watch 
the  disposition  of  the  ministry ;  they  were  intended 
to  be  made  known  in  England,  in  the  hope  of  awaken- 

VOL.    VII.  15* 


174  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


*8  ministers  from  the  delusion  that 
America  could  be  intimidated  into  submission. 

The  eyes  of  the  world  were  riveted  on  Franklin 
Nov.  and  George  the  Third..  The  former  was  environed 
by  dangers  ;  Gage  was  his  willing  accuser  from  Bos- 
ton ;  the  hatred  which  Hutchinson  bore  him  never 
slumbered  ;  the  ministry  affected  to  consider  him  as  the 
cause  of  all  the  troubles  ;  he  knew  himself  to  be  in  dail} 
peril  of  arrest  ;  but  "  the  great  friends  of  the  colonies" 
entreated  him  to  stay,  and  some  glimmering  of  hope 
remained,  that  the  manufacturers  and  merchants  of 
England  would  successfully  interpose  their  mediating 
influence.  The  king  on  his  part  never  once  harbored 
the  thought  of  concession  ;  and  "  lefb  the  choice  of 
war  or  peace  "  to  depend  on  the  obedience  of  Massa- 
chusetts. - 

The  new  elections  to  parliament  came  on,  while 
the  people  of  England  were  still  swayed  by  pride  ; 
and  the  question  was  artfully  misrepresented,  as 
though  it  were  only  that  Massachusetts  refused  to 
pay  a  just  and  very  moderate  indemnity  for  property 
destroyed  by  a  mob,  and  resisted  an  evident  improve- 
ment in  its  administrative  system,  from  a  deliberate 
conspiracy  with  other  colonies  to  dissolve  the  con- 
nection with  the  mother  country.  During  the  pro- 
gress of  the  canvass,  bribery  came  to  the  aid  of  the 
ministry,  for  many  of  the  members  who  were  pur- 
chasing seats,  expected  to  reimburse  themselves  by 
selling  their  votes  to  the  government. 

The  shrewd  French  minister  at  London,  witnessing 
the  briskness  of  the  traffic,  bethought  himself  that 
where  elections  depended  on  the  purse,  the  king  of 
France  might  buy  a  borough  as  rightfully  at  least  as 


THE  FOURTEENTH  PARLIAMENT.  175 

the  king  of  England,  who,  by  law  and  the  constitu-  CHA^P. 
tion,  was  bound  to  guard  the  franchises  of  his  people  -~v— 
against  corruption.     "You  will  learn  with  interest,"  l™*- 
thus  Gamier,  in  November,  announced  his  bargain  to    Nov. 
Vergennes,  "  that  you  will  have  in  the  house  of  com- 
mons, a  member  who  will  belong  to  you.     His  vote 
will  not  help  us  much;  but  the  copies  of  even  the 
most  secret  papers,  and  the  clear  and  exact  report 
which  he  can  daily  furnish  us,  will  contribute  essen- 
tially to  the  king's  service." 

Excess  had  impoverished  many  even  of  the  heirs 
to  the  largest  estates,  and  lords  as  well  as  commoners 
offered  themselves  at  market ;  so  that  "  if  America," 
said  Franklin,  "  would  save  for  three  or  four  years  the 
money  she  spends  in  the  fashions  and  fineries  and 
fopperies  of  this  country,  she  might  buy  the  whole 
parliament,  ministry  and  all." 

In  the  general  venality,  Edmund  Burke  was  dis- 
placed. Lord  Varney,  who  had  hitherto  gratuitously 
brought  him  into  parliament,  had  fallen  into  debt, 
and  instead  of  carrying  along  his  investment  in  the 
chance  of  Rockingham's  return  to  the  ministry,  he 
turned  his  back  on  deferred  hopes  and  friendship, 
and  pocketed  for  his  borough  the  most  cash  he 
ccftild  get. 

Burke  next  coquetted  with  Wilkes  for  support  at 
Westminster  ;  but  "  the  great  patriot"  preferred  Lord 
Mahon.  "  Wilkes  has  touched  Lord  Mahon's  money, 
and  desires  to  extort  more  by  stirring  up  a  multitude 
of  candidates,"  said  Burke,  in  the  fretful  hallucina- 
tions of  his  chagrin ;  while,  in  fact,  the  influence  of 
Wilkes  was  of  no  avail ;  Westminster  shared  the  pre- 
valent excitement  against  America  and  elected  to- 


176  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  ries.  Sometimes,  when  alone,  Burke  fell  into  an  in 
—v—  expressible  melancholy,  and  thought  of  renouncing 
lolt.'  Puklic  ltfe>  f°r  which  he  owned  himself  unfit.  There 
seemed  for  him  no  way  to  St.  Stephen's  chapel,  except 
through  a  rotten  borough  belonging  to  Rockingham  * 
and  what  influence  would  the  first  man  in  England 
for  speculative  intelligence  exert  in  the  house  of  com- 
mons, if  he  should  appear  there  as  the  paid  agent  of 
an  American  colony  and  the  nominee  of  an  English 
patron  ? 

Such  seemed  his  best  hope,  when,  on  the  eleventh 
of  October,  he  was  invited  to  become  a  candidate  at 
Bristol  against  Viscount  Clare,  the  statesman  who 
in  the  debates  on  repealing  the  stamp  act,  had 
stickled  for  "the  peppercorn"  from  America.  He 
hastened  to  the  contest  with  alacrity,  avowing  for 
his  principle  British  superiority,  which  was  yet  to  be 
reconciled  with  American  liberty  ;  and  after  a  strug- 
gle of  three  weeks,  he,  with  Cruger  of  New  York 
as  his  colleague,  was  elected  one  of  the  representatives 
of  the  great  trading  city  of  western  England. 

Bristol  was  almost  the  only  place  which  changed 
its  representation  to  the  advantage  of  America ;  Wilkes 
was  successful  in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  and  after  a 
ten  years'  struggle,  the  king,  from  zeal  to  concentrate 
opinion  against  America,  made  no  further  opposition 
to  his  admittance ;  but  in  the  aggregate  the  ministry 
increased  its  majorities. 

It  was  noticeable  that  William  Howe  was  the  can- 
didate for  Nottingham.  To  the  questions  of  that 
liberal  constituency  he  freely  answered,  that  the  min- 
istry had  pushed  matters  too  far;  that  the  whole 
British  army  would  not  be  sufficient  to  conquer 


THE    FOURTEENTH    PARLIAMENT.  177 

America  ;  that  if  offered  a  command  there,  he  would  CHAP. 
refuse  it ;  that  he  would  vote  for  the  repeal  of  the  ^^ 
four  penal  acts  of  parliament ;  and  he  turned  to  his    Oct  ' 
advantage  the  affectionate  respect  still  cherished  for    Nov- 
his  brother  who  fell  near  Lake  George. 

The  elections  were  over,  and  it  was  evident  that 
the  government  might  have  every  thing  its  own  way? 
when,  on  the  eighteenth  of  November,  letters  of  the 
preceding  September,  received  from  Gage,  announced 
that  the  act  of  parliament  for  regulating  the  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts  could  be  carried  into  effect 
only  after  the  conquest  of  all  the  New  England  col- 
onies ;  that  the  province  had  warm  friends  through- 
out the  North  American  continent ;  that  people  in 
Carolina  were  "  as  mad "  as  in  Boston ;  that  the 
country  people  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
Rhode  Island  were  exercising  in  arms  and  forming 
magazines  of  ammunition  and  such  artillery,  good  and 
bad,  as  they  could  procure ;  that  the  civil  officers  of 
the  British  government  had  no  asylum  but  Boston. 
In  a  private  letter  Gage  proposed  that  the  obnoxious 
acts  should  be  suspended.  In  an  official  paper  he 
hinted  that  it  would  be  well  to  cut  the  colonies  adrift, 
and  leave  them  to  anarchy  and  repentance ;  they  had 
grown  opulent  through  Britain,  and  were  they  cast 
off  and  declared  aliens,  they  must  become  a  poor  and 
needy  people.  But  the  king  heard  these  suggestions 
with  scorn.  "  The  New  England  governments,"  said 
he  to  North,  "  are  now  in  a  state  of  rebellion.  Blows 
must  decide  whether  they  are  to  be  subject  to  this 
country  or  to  be  independent."  This  was  his  instant 
determination,  to  which  he  obstinately  adhered.  On 
the  other  hand,  Franklin,  who  was  confident  of  the 


178  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  triumph  of  liberty,  explicitly  avowed  to  his  nearest 
friends,  that  there  was  now  no  safety  for  his  native 
county  but  in  total  emancipation.     In  this  condition 
30.     of  affairs  the  fourteenth  parliament  was  opened  on 
the  last  day  of  November. 

British  influence  during  the  summer  had  assisted 
in  establishing  between  the  Czar  and  the  Ottoman 
Porte  the  peace  which  was  so  glorious  and  eventful 
for  Russia.  The  speech  from  the  throne  could  offer 
congratulations  on  the  tranquillity  of  Europe,  and 
fix  attention  on  the  disobedience  in  Massachusetts. 
In  the  house  of  lords,  Hillsborough  moved  an  address, 
expressing  abhorrence  of  the  principles  which  that 
province  maintained ;  and  when  the  duke  of  Rich- 
mond attempted  to  postpone  adopting  opinions  which 
might  lead  to  measures  fatal  to  the  lives,  property, 
and  liberties  of  a  very  great  part  of  their  fellow- 
subjects,  it  was  replied,  that  the  sooner  and  the  more 
spiritedly  the  new  parliament  spoke  out  upon  the 
subject,  the  better.  "  I  advised  the  dissolution,"  said 
one  of  the  ministers,  "  lest  popular  dissatisfaction  aris- 
ing from  untoward  events,  should  break  the  chain  of 
those  public  measures,  necessary  to  reduce  the  colo- 
nies to  obedience."  "There  are  now  men  walking 
in  the  streets  of  London,  who  ought  to  be  in  New- 
gate, or  at  Tyburn,"  said  Hillsborough;  referring  for 
one  to  Quincy  of  Boston.  After  a  long  and  vehe- 
ment debate,  his  motion  prevailed  by  a  vote  of  about 
five  to  one.  But  Rockingham,  Shelburne,  Camden, 
Stanhope,  and  five  other  peers  made  a  written  pro- 
test against  "  the  inconsiderate  temerity  which  might 
precipitate  the  country  into  a  civil  war."  "  The 
king's  speech,"  wrote  Garnier  to  Vergennes,  u  will 


THE  FOURTEENTH  PARLIAMENT.  179 

Complete  the  work  of  alienating  the  colonies.  Every  CHAP. 
day  makes  a  conciliation  more  difficult,  and  every  ' — . — 
day  will  make  it  more  necessary."  ^ Jc4 ' 

On  the  fifth  of  December,  the  new  house  of  com- 
mons debated  the  same  subject.  Fox,  Burke,  and 
others,  spoke  warmly.  The  results  of  the  congress 
had  not  yet  arrived,  for  the  vessel  which  bore  them 
had,  after  ten  days,  put  back  to  New  York  in  dis- 
tress. Lord  North  could  therefore  say  that  America 
had  as  yet  offered  no  terms ;  at  the  same  time  he 
avoided  the  irrevocable  word  rebellion.  Some  called 
the  Americans  cowards ;  some  questioned  their  being 
in  earnest ;  and  though  Barre  declared  the  scheme  of 
subduing  them  "  wild  and  impracticable,"  the  minister 
was  sustained  by  a  very  great  majority. 

The  victory  brought  no  peace  of  mind  to  Lord 
North.  He  had  neither  originated  nor  fully  ap- 
proved the  American  measures,  which  he  had  him- 
self brought  forward.  Constantly  thwarted  in  the 
cabinet  by  his  colleagues,  he  vainly  struggled  to 
emancipate  himself  from  a  system  which  he  abhorred, 
and  for  which  the  real  authors  were  neither  legally 
nor  ostensibly  answerable,  and  he  sought  an  escape 
from  his  dilemma  by  proposing  to  send  out  commis- 
sioners of  inquiry.  But  the  king  promptly  overruled 
the  suggestion.  > 

Friends  of  Franklin  were  next  employed  to  ascer- 
tain the  extent  of  his  demands  for  America ;  and 
without  waiting  for  the  proceedings  of  congress,  he 
wrote  "hints  on  the  terms  that  might  produce  a 
durable  union  between  Great  Britain  and  the  colo- 
nies." Assuming  that  the  tea  duty  act  would  be  re- 
pealed, he  offered  payment  for  the  tea  that  had  been 


180  AMEKICAN   TN DEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  destroyed,  support  of  the  peace  establishment  and 
government,  liberal  aids  in  time  of  war  on  requisi- 
tion  by  the  king  and  parliament,  a  continuance  of  the 
same  aids  in  time  of  peace,  if  Britain  would  give  up 
its  monopoly  of  American  commerce.  On  the  other 
hand,  among  various  propositions,  he  asked  the  re- 
peal of  the  Quebec  act,  and  insisted  on  the  repeal  of 
the  acts  regulating  the  government  and  changing  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts,  "The  old  colonies,"  it  was 
objected,  "have  nothing  to  do  with  the  affairs  01 
Canada."  "  We  assisted  in  its  conquest,"  said  Frank- 
lin ;  "  loving  liberty  ourselves,  we  wish  to  have  no 
foundation  for  future  slavery  laid  in  America."  "  The 
Massachusetts  act,"  it  was  urged,  "  is  an  improvement 
of  that  government."  "The  pretended  amendments 
are  real  mischiefs,"  answered  Franklin ;  "  but  were  it 
not  so,  charters  are  compacts  between  two  parties,  the 
king  and  the  people,  not  to  be  altered  even  for  the 
better  but  by  the  consent  of  both.  The  parliament's 
claim  and  exercise  of  a  power  to  alter  charters,  which 
had  been  always  held  inviolable,  and  to  alter  laws 
which,  having  received  the  royal  approbation,  had 
been  deemed  fixed  and  unchangeable  but  by  the  pow- 
ers that  made  them,  have  rendered  all  our  constitutions 
uncertain.  As  by  claiming  a  right  to  tax  at  will,  you 
deprive  us  of  all  property,  so  by  this  claim  of  alter- 
ing our  laws  at  will,  you  deprive  us  of  all  privilege 
and  right  whatever  but  what  we  hold  at  your  pleas* 
ure.  We  must  risk  life  and  every  thing,  rather  than 
submit  to  this." 

The  words  of  Franklin  offered  no  relief  to  Lord 
North  ;  but  they  spoke  the  sense  of  his  countrymen  ; 
and  were  in  harmony  with  the  true  voice  of  Eng- 


THE    FOURTEENTH    PARLIAMENT. 


181 


land.  "  "Were  I  an  American,"  said  Camden  in  the  CHAP 
house  of  lords,  "  I  \tould  resist  to  the  last  drop  of  ray 
blood."  Still  the  annual  estimates  indicated  no  fear 
of  the  interruption  of  peace.  The  land  tax  was  con- 
tinued at  but  three  shillings  in  the  pound ;  no  vote 
of  credit  was  required ;  the  army  was  neither  in- 
creased nor  reformed ;  and  the  naval  force  was  re- 
duced by  four  thousand  seamen.  "  How  is  it  possi 
ble,"  asked  the  partisans  of  authority,  "  that  a  people 
without  arms,  ammunition,  money,  or  navy,  should 
dare  to  brave  the  foremost  among  all  the  powers  on 
earth  ? "  Had  they  been  told  that  the  farmers  who 
formed  the  majority  of  the  congress  of  Massachu- 
setts, after  a  proposition  to  stop  at  a  thousand 
pounds,  then  at  two  thousand,  at  last  authorized  an 
expenditure  of  but  fifteen  thousand  pounds  for  mili- 
tary purposes ;  that  the  committee  of  safety  of  the 
province  was,  at  that  time,  instructing  the  com- 
mittee of  supplies  to  provide  two  hundred  spades,  a 
hundred  and  fifty  pickaxes,  a  thousand  wooden  mess 
bowls,  and  other  small  articles,  as  well  as  stores  of 
peas  and  flour  in  proportion,  their  contemptuous  con- 
fidence might  not  have  been  diminished.  "  I  know," 
said  Sandwich,  then  at  the  head  of  the  admiralty,  "the 
low  establishment  proposed  will  be  fully  sufficient  for 
reducing  the  colonies  to  obedience.  Americans  are 
neither  disciplined,  nor  capable  of  discipline ;  their 
numbers  will  only  add  to  the  facility  of  their  de- 
feat ; "  and  he  made  the  lords  merry  with  jests  at 
their  cowardice. 

This  arrogance  of  men  who  had  on  their  side  the 
block  and  the  gallows,  demonstrated  the  purpose  of 
reducing  the  colonies  by  force.  "Prepare  for  the 

VOL.  VII.  16 


182  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  worst,"  wrote  Quincy  ;  "  forbearance,  delays,  inde- 
— r— <  cision,  will  bring  greater  evils."  •But  the  advice  had 
not  be>3n  waited  for.  The  congress  of  Massachusetts, 
on  hearing  of  the  sudden  dissolution  of  parliament, 
foresaw  that  the  new  house  of  commons  would  be 
chosen  under  the  influence  of  the  ministry.  Though 
in  November,  denounced  by  Grage  in  a  proclamation 
as  "  an  unlawful  assembly,  whose  proceedings  tended 
to  ensnare  the  inhabitants  of  the  province,  and  draw 
them  into  perjuries,  riots,  sedition,  treason  and  rebel- 
lion," though  destitute  of  disciplined  troops,  muni- 
tions of  war,  armed  vessels,  military  stores,  and 
money,  they  had  confidence  that  a  small  people, 
resolute  in  its  convictions,  outweighs  an  empire. 
Encouraged  by  the  presence  of  Samuel  Adams,  after 
his  return  from  Philadelphia,  they  adopted  all  the 
recommendations  of  the  continental  congress.  While 
Gage  delayed  to  strengthen  Crown  Point  and  Ticon- 
deroga,  the  keys  of  the  North,  they  established  a 
secret  correspondence  with  Canada.  They  entreated 
the  ministers  of  the  gospel  in  the  colony,  "  to  assist  in 
avoiding  that  dreadful  slavery,  with  which  all  were 
now  threatened."  "  You,"  said  they  to  the  collective 
inhabitants  of  Massachusetts,  "  are  placed  by  Provi- 
dence in  the  post  of  honor,  because  it  is  the  post  of 
danger ;  and  while  struggling  for  the  noblest  objects, 
the  eyes  not  only  of  North  America  and  the  whole 
British  empire,  but  of  all  Europe  are  upon  you.  Let 
nothing  unbecoming  our  character  as  Americans,  as 
citizens  and  Christians,  be  justly  chargeable  to  us. 
Whoever  considers  the  number  of  brave  men  inhab- 
iting North  America,  will  know,  that  a  general  at- 
tention to  military  discipline,  must  so  establish  their 


THE    FOURTEENTH    PARLIAMENT.  183 

rights  and  liberties,  as  under  God,  to  render  it  im-  CHAP. 
possible  to  destroy  them.  But  we  apprise  you  of  — r^ 
your  danger,  which  appears  to  us  imminently  great. 
The  minute  men,  not  already  provided,  should  be  im- 
mediately equipped,  and  disciplined  three  times  a 
week,  or  oftener.  With  the  utmost  cheerfulness  we 
assure  you  of  our  determination  to  stand  or  fall  with 
the  liberties  of  America."  With  such  words  they 
adjourned,  to  keep  the  annual  Thanksgiving  whicli 
they  themselves  had  appointed ;  finding  occasion  in 
the  midst  of  all  their  distress  to  rejoice  at  "the 
smiles  of  Divine  Providence "  on  "  the  union  of  their 
own  province  and  throughout  the  continent." 

As  ships  of  the  line  successively  arrived,  they 
brought  for  the  land  service  no  more  than  six  hun- 
dred recruits,  which  only  made  good  the  losses  by 
sickness  and  desertion  ;  so  that  all  together  Gage  had 
scarcely  three  thousand  effective  men.  Before  the 
middle  of  December,  it  became  known  that  the  king 
in  council  had  forbidden  the  export  of  arms  to  Amer- 
ica ;  at  once  men  from  Providence  removed  more 
than  forty  pieces  of  cannon  from  the  colony's  fort 
near  Newport ;  and  the  assembly  of  Rhode  Island 
and  its  merchants  took  measures  to  import  military 
stores. 

At  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  on  Wednesday, 
the  fourteenth  of  December,  just  after  letters  were 
received  from  Boston,  members  of  the  town  commit- 
tee, with  other  Sons  of  Liberty,  preceded  by  a  drum 
and  fife,  paraded  the  streets  till  their  number  grew 
to  four  hundred,  when  they  made  their  way  in  scows 
and  "gondolas "to  the  fort  at  the  entrance  of  the 
harbor,  overpowered  the  few  invalids  who  formed  its 


184  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  garrison,  and  carried  off  upwards  of  one  Hundred  bar- 
^v—  rels  of  powder,  that  "belonged  to  the  province.  The 
nex^  ^ay>  without  waiting  for  a  large  body  on  the 
road  from  Exeter,  John  Sullivan,  who  had  been  a 
member  of  the  continental  congress,  led  a  party  to 
dismantle  the  fort  completely;  and  they  brought 
away  all  the  small  arms,  a  quantity  of  shot,  and  six- 
teen light  pieces  of  artillery. 

The  condition  of  Massachusetts  was  anomalous; 
three  hundred  thousand  people  continued  their  usual 
avocations,  and  enjoyed  life  and  property  in  un- 
disturbed tranquillity  without  a  legislature  or  execu- 
tive officers ;  without  sheriffs,  judges,  or  justices  of 
the  peace.  As  the  supervision  of  government  dis- 
appeared, each  man  seemed  more  and  more  a  law  to 
himself;  and  as  if  to  show  that  the  world  had  been 
governed  too  much,  order  prevailed  in  a  province 
where  in  fact  there  existed  no  regular  government ; 
no  administration  but  by  committees ;  no  military 
officers  but  those  chosen  by  the  militia.  Yet  never 
were  legal  magistrates  obeyed  with  more  alacrity. 
The  selectmen  continued  their  usual  functions;  the 
service  in  the  churches  increased  in  fervor.  From 
the  sermons  of  memorable  divines,  who  were  gone 
to  a  heavenly  country,  leaving  their  names  precious 
among  the  people  of  God  on  earth,  a  brief  collec- 
tion of  faithful  testimonies  to  the  cause  of  God  and 
his  New  England  people  was  circulated  by  the  press, 
that  the  hearts  of  the  rising  generation  might  know 
what  had  been  the  great  end  of  the  plantations,  and 
count  it  their  duty  and  their  glory  to  continue  in 
those  right  ways  of  the  Lord  wherein  their  fathers 
walked  before  them.  Their  successors  in  the  minis- 


THE  FOURTEENTH  PARLIAMENT.  185 

try,  all  pupils  of  Harvard  or  Yale,  lorded  over  by  no  CHAP. 
prelate,  with  the  people,  and  of  the  people,  and  true 
ministers  to  the  people,  unsurpassed  by  the  clergy 
of  an  equal  population  in  any  part  of  the  globe  for 
learning,  ability,  and  virtue,  for  metaphysical  acute- 
ness,  familiarity  with  the  principles  of  political  free- 
dom, devotedness,  and  practical  good  sense,  were 
heard  as  of  old  with  reverence  by  their  congrega- 
tions in  their  meeting-houses  on  every  Lord's  day, 
and  on  special  occasions  of  fasts,  thanksgivings,  lec- 
tures, and  military  musters.  Elijah's  mantle  being 
caught  up,  was  a  happy  token  that  the  Lord  would 
be  with  this  generation  as  he  had  been  with  their 
fathers.  Their  exhaustless  armory  was  the  Bible, 
whose  scriptures  were  stored  with  weapons  for  every 
occasion ;  furnishing  sharp  words  to  point  their  ap- 
peals, apt  examples  of  resistance,  prophetic  denuncia- 
tions of  the  enemies  of  God's  people,  and  promises  of 
the  divine  blessing  on  the  defenders  of  his  law. 

But  what  most  animated  the  country  was  the 
magnanimity  of  Boston ;  u  suffering  amazing  loss,  but 
determined  to  endure  poverty  and  death,  rather  than 
betray  America  and  posterity."  Its  people,  under 
the  eyes  of  the  general,  disregarding  alike  his  army, 
his  proclamations  against  a  provincial  congress,  and 
the  Biitish  statute  against  town-meetings,  came  to- 
gether according  to  their  ancient  forms  ;  and  with 
Samuel  Adams  as  moderator,  elected  .delegates  to  the 
next  provincial  congress  of  Massachusetts* 

VOL.  VII.  16* 


CHAPTER  XVli. 

THE  KING  REJECTS  THE  OFFERS  OF  CONGRESS. 
DECEMBER,  1774 — JANUARY,  1775. 

CHAP.  "  IT  will  be  easy  -to  sow  division  among  the  delegates 
to  the  congress,"  said  Rochford  to  Gamier,  "they 
>  will  do  nothing  but  bring  ridicule  upon  themselves 
by  exposing  their  weakness."  Their  firmness,  moder- 
ation, and  unanimity  took  the  ministry  by  surprise, 
when  just  before  the  adjournment  of  parliament 
their  proceedings  reached  England.  "It  is  not  at 
all  for  the  interests  of  France  that  our  colonies 
should  become  independent,"  repeated  Rochford. 
lt  The  English  minister,"  reasoned  Gamier,  "  thinks, 
that  after  all  they  may  set  up  for  themselves/' 

Franklin  invited  the  colonial  agents  to  unite  in 
presenting  the  petition  of  congress,  but  he  was 
joined  only  by  those  who  were  employed  by  Mas- 
sachusetts. Dartmouth  received  it  courteously,  and 
laid  it  before  the  king,  who  promised  that  after  the 
recess  it  should  be  communicated  to  parliament. 
Barrington,  the  military  secretary,  was  the  first  to 
confess  the  weakness  of  his  department  and  to  re- 


THE   OFFERS    OF    CONGRESS    REJECTED.  187 

monstrate  against  war.  British  industry  made  every  CHAR 
able-bodied  man  of  so  much  value,  that  considerable  — • — 
enlistments  at  home  were  out  of  the  question ;  rank 
in  the  army  was  bestowed  by  favor,  or  sold  for 
money,  so  that  even  boys  at  school  sometimes  held 
commissions ;  and  under  the  corrupt  system,  not 
one  general  officer  of  that  day  had  gained  a  great 
name.  Aristocratic  selfishness  had  unfitted  England 
for  war,  unless  under  a  minister  who  could  inspirit 
the  nation.  Barrington,  therefore,  who  had  in  ad- 
vance advised,  "  that  the  seven  regiments  in  Boston 
should  be  directed  to  leave  a  place  where  they  could 
do  no  good,  and  without  intention  might  do  harm," 
and  who  was  persuaded  that  the  navy  by  itself  was 
able  to  worry  Massachusetts  into  "  submission  with- 
out shedding  a  drop  of  blood,"  once  more  pressed 
his  opinions  upon  the  government.  "The  contest," 
said  he,  "  will  cost  more  than  we  can  gain  by  success. 
We  have  not  strength  to  levy  internal  taxes  on 
America  ;  many  amongst  ourselves  doubt  their 
equity;  all  the  troops  in  North  America  are  not 
enough  to  subdue  the  Massachusetts ;  the  most  suc- 
cessful conquest  must  produce  the  horrors  of  civil 
war.*  Till  the  factious  chiefs  can  be  secured,  judicial 
proceedings  would  confer  the  palm  of  martyrdom 
without  the  pain ; "  and  he  urged  an  immediate  with- 
drawal of  the  troops,  the  "  abandonment  of  all  ideas 
of  internal  taxation,"  and  such  •"  concessions  "  as  could 
be  made  "  with  dignity." 

Lord  North  was  disquieted.  He  rejected  the  pro- 
positions of  congress,  which  included  the  repeal  of 
the  act  regulating  Massachusetts,  but  he  was  ready 
to  negotiate  with  the  Americans  for  the  right  to  tax 


188  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

themselves.     Franklin  appeared  as  the  great  agent 
of    the   continent  ;    and   it   was    believed  that   his 

1774 

Dec.  secret  instructions  authorized  him  to  modify  the 
conditions  prop$sed  for  conciliation.  Lord  Howe 
undertook  to  ascertain  the  extent  of  his  powers. 

The  name  was  dear  to  Americans.  The  elder  Lord 
Howe  had  fallen  on  their  soil,  as  their  companion  in 
arms,  and  Massachusetts  raised  to  him  a  monument 
in  Westminster  Abbey.  His  brother,  William 
Howe,  who  had  served  with  Americans  in  America, 
was  selected  as  the  new  colonial  commander-in-chief ; 
and  his  oldest  surviving  brother,  now  Lord  Howe, 
also  honored  in  America  as  a  gallant  and  upright 
naval  officer,  was  to  be  commissioned  as  a  pacificator. 

"  ISTo  man,"  said  Lord  Howe  to  Franklin  at  their 
first  interview  on  Christmas-day  evening,  "  can  do 
more  towards  reconciling  our  differences  than  you. 
That  you  have  been  very  ill-treated  by  the  min- 
istry, I  hope  will  not  be  considered  by  you.  M  I 
have  a  particular  regard  for  New  England,  which 
has  shown  an  endearing  respect  for  my  family.  If 
you  will  indulge  me  with  your  ideas,  I  may  be  a 
means  of  bringing  on  a  good  understanding."  At 
the  unexpected  prospect  of  restoring  harmony,  tears 
of  joy  wet  Franklin's  cheeks.  He  had  remained 
in  London  at  the  peril  of  his  liberty,  perhaps  of  his 
life,  to  promote  reconciliation,  and  the  only  moment 
for  securing  it  was  now  come.  With  firmness, 
candor,  and  strict  fidelity  to  congress,  he  explained 
the  measures  by  which  alone  tranquillity  could  be 
restored ;  and  they  included  the  repeal  of  the  regu- 
lating act  for  Massachusetts. 

Lord  .Howe  reported  the  result  of  the  interview 


THE   OFFERS    OF    CONGRESS    REJECTED.  189 

to  Dartmouth  and  North ;  but  as  they  had  no  hope  CHAP. 
of  inducing  their  colleagues,  or  the  king,  or  parlia-  v— ^ 
ment  to  concede  so  much,  they  trusted  to  the  plan 
of  commissioners  who  should  repair  to  America  and 
endeavor  to  agree  with  its  leading  people  upon  some 
means  of  composing  all  differences.  Every  prospect 
of  preferment  was  opened  to  Franklin,  if  he  would 
take  part  in  such  a  commission.  With  exact  truth 
and  frankness,  he  pointed  out,  as  the  basis  for  a  cor- 
dial union,  the  repeal  of  the  acts  complained  of; 
the  removal  of  the  fleet  and  the  troops  from  Boston ; 
and  a  voluntary  recall  of  some  oppressive  measures 
which  the  colonists  had  passed  over  in  silence ;  leav- 
ing the  questions,  which  related  to  aids,  general  com- 
merce, and  reparation  to  the  India  company,  to  be 
arranged  with  the  next  general  congress. 

The  assembly  of  Jamaica  at  their  session  in  De- 
cember endeavored  to  interpose.  They  affirmed  the 
rights  of  the  colonies,  enumerated  their  grievances, 
enforced  their  claims  to  redress,  and  entreated  the 
king  as  a  common  parent  to  become  the  mediator 
between  his  European  and  American  subjects,  and 
to  recognise  the  title  of  the  Americans  to  the  benefits 
of  the  English  constitution  as  the  bond  of  union 
between  the  colonists  and  Britain.  At  the  same 
time  they  disclaimed  the  intention  of  joining  the 
American  confederacy ;  "  for,"  said  they,  "  weak  and 
feeble  as  this  colony  is,  from  its  very  small  number 
of  white  inhabitants,  and  its  peculiar  situation  from 
the  incumbrance  of  more  than  two  hundred  thou- 
sand slaves,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  we  now  in- 
tend, or  ever  could  have  intended,  resistance  to 
Great  Britain."  The  vast  commercial  importance  of 


190  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

the  island  gave  them  a  claim  to  be  heard ;  but  their 
'  petition,  though  in  due  time  received  by  the  king  and 
'  communicated  to  the  house  of  commons,  had  no  effect 
whatever. 

"  It  is  plain  enough,"  thus  reasoned  Yergennes, 
uthe  king  of  England  is  puzzled  between  his  desire 
of  reducing  the  colonies,  and  his  dread  of  driving 
them  to  a  separation ;  so  that  nothing  could  be  more 
interesting  than  the  affairs  of  America,"  As  the 
king  of  France  might  be  called  upon  to  render  as- 
sistance to  the  insurgent  colonies,  the  conduct  of 
the  English  in  their  support  of  the  Corsicans  was 
cited  as  a  precedent  to  the  French  embassy  at  Lon- 
don, and  brought  before  the  cabinet  at  Versailles. 
To  Louis  the  Sixteenth  Vergennes  explained,  that 
the  proceedings  of  the  continental  congress  contained 
the  germ  of  a  rebellion;  that  while  the  Americans 
really  desired  a  reconciliation  with  the  mother  coun- 
try, the  ministry  from  their  indifference  would  pre- 
vent its  taking  place ;  that  Lord  North,  no  longer 
confident  of  having  America  at  his  feet,  was  discon- 
certed by  the  unanimity  and  vigor  of  the  colonies ; 
and  that  France '  had  nothing  to  fear  but  the  return 
of  Chatham  to  power. 

The  interests  of  Britain  required  Chatham's  re- 
turn ;  for  he  thoroughly  understood  the  policy  of 
the  French  as  well  as  the  disposition  of  the  colonies. 
In  his  interview  with  Americans  he  said  without  re- 
serve :  "  America  under  all  her  oppressions  and  pro- 
vocations, holds  out  to  us  the  most  fair  and  just 
opening  for  restoring  harmony  and  affectionate  in- 
tercourse." No  public  body  ever  gained  so  full  and 
unanimous  a  recognition  of  its  integrity  and  its  wis- 


THE    OFFERS    OF    CONGRESS    REJECTED.  191 

dom,  as  the  general  congress  of  1774.  The  policy  CHAP. 
which  its  members  proposed  sprung  so  necessarily  — ^ 
out  of  the  relations  of  free  countries  to  their  colonies, 
that  within  a  few  years  it  was  adopted  even  by  their 
most  malignant  enemies  among  the  British  statesmen, 
for  three  quarters  of  a  century  regulated  the  colonial 
administration  of  every  successive  ministry,  and  finally 
gave  way  to  a  system  of  navigation,  yet  more  liberal 
than  the  American  congress  had  proposed. 

The  day  after  Franklin's  first  conversation  with 
Lord  Howe,  Chatham  received  him  at  Hayes.  "The 
congress,"  said  he,  "  is  the  most  honorable  assembly 
of  statesmen  since  those  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and 
Romans  in  the  most  virtuous  times."  He  thought 
the  petition  to  the  king  "  decent,  manly,  and  prop- 
erly expressed."  He  questioned  the  assertion,  that 
the  keeping  up  an  army  in  the  colonies  in  time  of 
peace,  required  their  consent ;  with  that  exception 
he  admired  and  honored  the  whole  of  the  proceed- 
ings. "  The  army  at  Boston,"  said  Franklin,  who 
saw  the  imminent  hazard  of  bloodshed,  "  cannot 
possibly  answer  any  good  purpose,  and  may  be  infi- 
nitely mischievous.  No  accommodation  can  be  prop* 
erly  entered  into  by  the  Americans,  while  the  bay- 
onet is  at  their  breasts.  To  have  an  agreement 
binding,  all  force  should  be  withdrawn."  The  words 
sank  deeply  into  the  mind  of  Chatham,  and  he 
promised  his  utmost  efforts  to  the  American  cause, 
as  the  last  hope  of  liberty  for  England.  "I  shall 
be  well  prepared,"  said  he,  "to  meet  the  ministry 
on  the  subject,  for  I  think  of  nothing  else  both  night 
?nd  day." 

Like   Chatham,  Camden  desired  the  settlement 


192  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


Dispute  upon  the  conditions  proposed  by  con- 
gress  ;  and  from  the  temper,  coolness,  and  wisdom 
of  most  of  the  American  assemblies,  he  augured  the 
establishment  of  their  rights  on  a  durable  agreement 
with  the  mother  country. 

To  unite  every  branch  of  the  opposition  in  one 
line  of  policy,  Chatham  desired  a  cordial  junction 
with  the  Buckingham  whigs.  That  party  had  only 
two  friends  who  spoke  in  the  house  of  lords,  and  in 
the  house  of  commons  was  mouldering  away.  And 
yet  Eockingham  was  impracticable.  "  I  look  back," 
he  said,  "  with  very  real  satisfaction  and  content,  on 
the  line  which  I,  indeed,  emphatically  I,  took  in  the 
year  1766;  the  stamp-act  was  repealed,  and  the 
doubt  of  the  right  of  this  country  was  fairly  faced 
and  resisted."  Burke,  like  his  patron,  pursued 
Chatham  implacably,  and  refused  to  come  to  an  un- 
derstanding with  him  on  general  politics.  Neither 
did  he  perceive  the  imminence  of  the  crisis  ;  but  be- 
lieved that  the  Americans  would  not  preserve  their 
unanimity,  so  that  the  controversy  would  draw  into 
great  length,  and  derive  its  chief  importance  from  its 
aspect  on  parties  in  England.  At  the  very  moment 
when  Burke  was  still  fondly  supporting  his  theory 
of  the  omnipotence  of  parliament  over  the  colonies, 
he  blindly  insisted,  that  Chatham  himself  was  the 
best  bower  anchor  of  the  ministry. 

With  far  truer  instincts,  Chatham  divined  that 
peril  was  near,  and  that  it  could  be  averted  only  by 
a  circumscription  of  the  absolute  power  of  parliament. 
To  farther  that  end,  the  aged  statesman  paid  a  visit 
to  Eockingham.  At  its  opening,  Chatham's  counte- 
nance beamed  with  cordiality  ;  but  Eockingham  had 


THE    OFFERS    OF    CONGRESS    REJECTED.  193 

learned  as  little  as  the  ministers,  and  with  a  per-  CHAP. 
verseness  equal  to  theirs,  insisted  on  maintaining  the  ^^ 
declaratory  act.     "The  Americans  have  not  called  l^' 
for-  its  repeal,"  was  his  reply  to  all  objections ;  and 
he  never  could  be  made  to  comprehend  the  forbear- 
ance of  congress.     So  nothing  remained  for  Chatham 
but  to  rely  on  himself.     The  opposition,  thus  divided, 
excited  no  alarm. 

The  king  was  inflexible  ;  and  the  majority  of  the 
cabinet,  instead  of  respecting  Lord  North's  scruples, 
were  intriguing  to  get  him  turned  out,  and  his  place 
supplied  by  a  thorough  assertor  of  British  supremacy.  1 776,. 
A  cabinet  council  was  held  on  the  twelfth  of  January, 
and  the  current  of  its  opinions  drifted  the  minister 
into  the  war,  which  he  wished  to  avoid.  His  col-  12 
leagues  refused  to  find  in  the  proceedings  of  con- 
gress any  honorable  basis  for  conciliation.  It  was 
therefore  resolved  to  interdict  all  commerce  with  the 
Americans;  to  protect  the  loyal,  and  to  declare  all 
others  traitors  and  rebels.  The  vote  was  designed 
only  to  create  division  in  the  colonies,  but  it  in- 
volved a  civil  war. 

VOL.    VII.  17 


CHAPTEE    XVIII. 

CHATHAM  LAYS  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  PEACE 
JANUARY  20,  1775. 

CHAP.  AT  the  meeting   of  parliament   after  the  holidays, 
SJi  Lord  North,  who  had  no  plan  of  his  own,  presented 
1775.  papers  relating  to  America.     Burke  complained  of 
them  as  partial.     Chatham,  who  alone  among  the 
public  men  of  England  had  the  sagacity  and  courage 
to  propose  what  was  necessary  for  conciliation,  was 
reminded  of  the  statesman  who  said  to  his  son :  "  See 
with  how  little  wisdom  this  world  of  ours  is  govern- 
ed ; "  and  he  pictured  to  himself  Ximenes  and  Cortes 
discussing  their  merits  in  the  shades. 
Jan>          The  twentieth  of  January  was  the  first  day  of  the 
20-     session  in  the  house  of  lords.     It  is  not  probable  that 
even  one  of  the  peers  had  heard  of  the  settlements 
beyond  the  Alleghanies,  where  the  Watauga  and  the 
Forks  of  Holston  flow  to  the  Tennessee.     Yet  on  the 
same  day,  the  lords  of  that  region,  most  of  them 
Presbyterians  of  Scottish  Irish  descent,  met  in  coun- 
cil near  Abingdon.     Their  united  congregations,  hav- 
ing suffered  from  sabbaths  too  much  profaned,  or 


CHATHAM    LAYS    THE    FOUNDATION    OF    PEACE.  195 

wasted  in  melancholy  silence  at  home,  had  called  CHAP 
Charles  Cummings  to  the  pastoral  charge  of  their  — . — 
precious  and  immortal  souls.  The  men  never  went  lja^5' 
to  public  worship  without  being  armed,  or  without  2°- 
their  families.  Their  minister,  on  Sabbath  morning, 
would  ride  to  the  service,  armed  with  shot  pouch  and 
rifle.  Their  meeting-house,  which  was  always  filled, 
was  a  large  cabin  of  unhewn  logs ;  and  when  about 
twice  in  the  year  the  bread  and  cup  were  distributed, 
the  table  was  spread  outside  of  the  church  in  the 
neighboring  grove.  The  news  from  congress  reached 
them  slowly ;  but  on  receiving  an  account  of  what 
had  been  done,  they  assembled  in  convention,  and 
the  spirit  of  freedom  swept  through  their  minds  as 
naturally  as  the  ceaseless  forest  wind  sighs  through 
the  firs  down  the  sides  of  the  Black  Mountains. 
They  adhered  unanimously  to  the  association  of 
congress,  and  named  as  their  committee,  Charles 
Cummings,  their  minister;  Preston,  Christian,  Ar- 
thur Campbell,  John  Campbell,  Evan  Shelby,  and 
others.  They  felt  that  they  had  a  country ;  and 
adopting  the  delegates  of  Virginia  as  their  repre- 
sentatives, they  addressed  them  as  men  whose  con- 
duct would  immortalize  them  in  its  annals.  a  We  ex- 
plored," said  they,  "  our  uncultivated  wilderness,  bor- 
dering on  many  nations  of  savages,  and  surrounded 
by  mountains  almost  inaccessible  to  any  but  these 
savages.  But  even  to  these  remote  regions  the  hand 
of  power  hath  pursued  us,  to  strip  us  of  that  liberty 
and  property,  with  which  God,  nature,  and  the  rights 
of  humanity  have  vested  us.  We  are  willing  to  con- 
tribute all  in  our  power,  if  applied  to  constitutionally, 
but  cannot  think  of  submitting  our  liberty  or  prop- 


196  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  erty  to  a  venal  British  parliament,  or  a  corrupt  min- 
— ^  istry.    We  are  deliberately  and  resolutely  determined 
1  Ja7n5  •  never  to  surrender  any  of  our  inestimable  privileges 
20.     to  any  power  upon  earth,  but  at  the  expense  of  our 
lives.     These  are  our  real  though  unpolished  senti- 
ments of  liberty  and  loyalty,  and  in  them  we  are  re- 
solved to  live  and  die." 

While  they  were  publishing  in  the  western  forests 
this  declaration  of  a  purpose,  which  they  were  sure 
to  make  good,  Chatham  was  attempting  to  rouse  the 
ministry  from  its  indifference.  u  Your  presence  at 
this  day's  debate,"  said  he  to  Franklin,  whom  he  met 
by  appointment  in  the  lobby  of  the  house  of  lords, 
"  will  be  of  more  service  to  America  than  mine ; "  and 
walking  with  him  arm  in  arm,  he  would  have  intro- 
duced him  near  the  throne  among  the  sons  and 
brothers  of  peers ;  but  being  reminded  of  the  rule  of 
the  house,  placed  him  below  the  bar,  where  he  was 
still  more  conspicuous. 

So  soon  as  Dartmouth  had  laid  the  papers  before 
the  house,  Chatham  rose,  and  after  inveighing  bit- 
terly against  the  dilatoriness  of  the  communication, 
moved  to  address  the  king  for  "immediate  orders  to 
remove  the  forces  from  the  town  of  Boston  as  soon 
as  possible." 

"  My  lords ! "  he  continued,  with  a  crowd  of 
Americans  as  his  breathless  listeners,  "  the  way  must 
be  immediately  opened  for  reconciliation ;  it  will  soon 
be  too  late  ;  an  hour  now  lost  may  produce  years  of 
calamity.  This  measure  of  recalling  the  troops  from 
Boston,  is  preparatory  to  the  restoration  of  your 
peace,  and  the  establishment  of  your  prosperity. 
"  Resistance  to  your  acts  was  necessary  as  it  was 


CHATHAM  LAYS  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  PEACE.        197 

just ;  and  your  imperious  doctrine  of  the  omnipo-  CHAP. 
fcence  of  parliament  and  the  necessity  of  submission,  ^^ 
will  be  found  equally  impotent  to  convince  or  to  en-  1Ja^15' 
slave.  20. 

"  The  means  of  enforcing  thraldom  are  as  weak 
in  practice,  as  they  are  unjust  in  principle.  General 
Gage  and  the  troops  under  his  command  are  penned 
up,  pining  in  inglorious  inactivity.  You  may  call 
them  an  army  of  safety  and  of  guard ;  but  they  are 
in  truth  an  army  of  impotence ;  and  to  make  the 
folly  equal  to  the  disgrace,  they  are  an  army  of  irri- 
tation. But  this  tameness,  however  contemptible, 
cannot  be  censured ;  for  the  first  drop  of  blood,  shed 
in  civil  and  unnatural  war,  will  make  a  wound  that 
years,  perhaps  ages,  may  not  heal.  Their  force  would 
be  most  disproportionately  exerted  against  a  brave, 
generous,  and  united  people,  with  arms  in  their  hands, 
and  courage  in  their  hearts  :  three  millions  of  people, 
the  genuine  descendants  of  a  valiant  and  pious  ances- 
try, driven  to  those  deserts  by  the  narrow  maxims  of 
a  superstitious  tyranny.  And  is  the  spirit  of  perse- 
cution never  to  be  appeased  ?  Are  the  brave  sons  of 
those  brave  forefathers  to  inherit  their  sufferings,  as 
they  have  inherited  their  virtues  ?  Are  they  to  sus- 
tain the  infliction  of  the  most  oppressive  and  unex- 
ampled severity  ?  They  have  been  condemned  un- 
heard. The  indiscriminate  hand  of  vengeance  has 
lumped  together  innocent  and  guilty ;  with  all  the 
formalities  of  hostility,  has  blocked  up  the  town  of 
Boston,  and  reduced  to  beggary  and  famine  thirty 
thousand  inhabitants. 

"But  his  Majesty  is  advised  that  the  union  in 
America  cannot  last !  I  pronounce  it  a  union,  solid, 

VOL.    VII.  17* 


198  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  permanent,  and  effectual.     Its  real  stamina  are  to  be 
—  ,  —  '•  looked  for  among  the   cultivators  of  the  land  ;  in 


LJan5  kheir  simplicity  of  life  is  found  the  integrity  and 
20.  courage  of  freedom.  These  true  sons  of  the  earth 
are  invincible. 

"  This  spirit  of  independence,  animating  the  na- 
tion of  America,  is  not  new  among  them  ;  it  is,  and 
has  ever  been,  their  confirmed  persuasion.  When 
the  repeal  of  the  stamp  act  was  in  agitation,  a  person 
of  undoubted  respect  and  authenticity  on  that  sub- 
ject, assured  me  that  these  were  the  prevalent  and 
steady  principles  of  America  ;  that  you  might  de- 
stroy their  towns,  and  cut  them  off  from  the  super- 
fluities, perhaps  the  conveniences  of  life  ;  but  that 
they  were  prepared  to  despise  your  power,  and  would 
not  lament  their  loss,  whilst  they  have  —  what,  my 
lords  ?  —  their  woods  and  their  liberty. 

"  If  illegal  violences  have  been  committed  in 
America,  prepare  the  way  for  acknowledgment  and 
satisfaction  ;  but  cease  your  indiscriminate  inflictions  ; 
amerce  not  thirty  thousand,  oppress  not  three  mil- 
lions, for  the  fault  of  forty  or  fifty  individuals.  Such 
severity  of  injustice  must  irritate  your  colonies  to  un- 
appeasable rancor.  What  though  you  march  from 
town  to  town,  and  from  province  to  province  ?  How 
shall  you  be  able  to  secure  the  obedience  of  the 
country  you  leave  behind  you  in  your  progress,  to 
grasp  the  dominion  of  eighteen  hundred  miles  of  con- 
tinent ? 

"  This  resistance  to  your  arbitrary  system  of  taxa- 
tion might  have  been  foreseen  from  the  nature  of 
things  and  of  mankind  ;  above  all  from  the  whig- 
gish  spirit  flourishing  in  that  country.  The  spirit 


CHATHAM  LAYS  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  PEACE.        199 

which  now  resists  your  taxation  in  America,  is  the  CHAP. 

XVIII 

same    which  formerly   opposed   loans,  benevolences  —  ,  —  - 


and  ship  money  in  England  ;  the  same  which,  by 
the  bill  of  rights,  vindicated  the  English  constitution  ;     20. 
the  same  which  established  the  essential  maxim  of 
your  liberties,  that  no  subject  of  England  shall  be 
taxed  but  by  his  own  consent. 

"  This  glorious  spirit  of  whiggism  animates  three 
millions  in  America,  aided  by  every  whig  in  England, 
to  the  amount,  I  hope,  of  double  the  American  num- 
bers. Ireland  they  have  to  a  man.  Let  this  distinc- 
tion then  remain  forever  ascertained  ;  taxation  is 
theirs,  commercial  regulation  is  ours.  They  say  you 
have  no  right  to  tax  them  without  their  consent  ; 
they  say  truly.  I  recognise  to  the  Americans  their 
supreme,  unalienable  right  in  their  property  ;  a  right 
which  they  are  justified  in  the  defence  of  to  the  last 
extremity.  To  maintain  this  principle  is  the  great 
common  cause  of  the  whigs  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  and  on  this. 

7Tis  liberty  to  liberty  engaged  ; 
the   alliance    of  God   and  nature  ;   immutable   and 
eternal. 

"  To  such  united  force,  what  force  shall  be  op- 
posed ?  What,  my  lords  ?  A  few  regiments  in 
America,  and  seventeen  or  eighteen  thousand  men  at 
home  !  The  idea  is  too  ridiculous  to  take  up  a  mo- 
ment of  your  lordships'  time.  Unless  the  fatal  acts 
are  done  away,  the  hour  of  danger  must  arrive  in  all 
its  horrors,  and  then  these  boastful  ministers,  spite  of 
all  their  confidence,  shall  be  forced  to  abandon  prin- 
•iples  which  they  avow,  but  cannot  defend  ;  measures 


20Q  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  which  they  presume  to  attempt,  but  cannot  hope  to 

• — , — '  effectuate. 

1J^5-  "It  is  not  repealing  a  piece  of  parchment,  that 
20.  can  restore  America  to  our  bosom :  you  must  repeal 
her  fears  and  her  resentments ;  and  you  may  then 
hope  for  her  love  and  gratitude.  Insulted  with  an 
armed  force  posted  at  Boston,  irritated  with  a  hostile 
array  before  her  eyes,  her  concessions,  if  you  could 
force  them,  would  be  insecure.  But  it  is  more  than 
evident,  that  united  as  they  are,  you  cannot  force 
them  to  your  unworthy  terms  of  submission. 

"  When  your  lordships  look  at  the  papers  trans- 
mitted us  from  America,  when  you  consider  their 
decency,  firmness,  and  wisdom,  you  cannot  but  respect 
their  cause,  and  wish  to  make  it  your  own.  For 
myself,  I  must  avow,  that  in  all  my  reading, — and 
I  have  read  Thucydides  and  have  studied  and  ad- 
mired the  master-states  of  the  world, — for  solidity  of 
reason,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclusion 
under  a  complication  of  difficult  circumstances,  no 
nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand  in  preference  to  the 
general  congress  at  Philadelphia.  The  histories  of 
Greece  and  Rome  give  us  nothing  equal  to  it,  and  all 
attempts  to  impose  servitude  upon  such  a  mighty 
continental  nation,  must  be  vain.  We  shall  be 
forced  ultimately  to  retract  ;  let  us  retract  while 
we  can,  not  when  we  must.  These  violent  acts  must 
be  repealed ;  you  will  repeal  them ;  I  pledge  myself 
for  it,  I  stake  my  reputation  on  it,  that  you  will  in 
the  end  repeal  them.  Avoid,  then,  this  humiliating 
necessity.  With  a  dignity  becoming  your  exalted 
situation,  make  the  first  advances  to  concord,  peace, 
and  happiness,  for  that  is  your  true  dignity.  Con- 


CHATHAM    LAYS    THE    FOUNDATION    OF    PEACE.  201 

cession  comes  with  better  grace  from  superior  power ;  CHAP. 
and  establishes  solid  confidence  on  the  foundations  of  v — « — ' 
affection  and  gratitude.  Be  the  first  to  spare ;  throw  Ja7n  * 
down  the  weapons  in  your  hand. 

"  Every  motive  of  justice  and  policy,  of  dignity 
and  of  prudence,  urges  you  to  allay  the  ferment  in 
America  by  a  removal  of  your  troops  from  Boston, 
by  a  repeal  of  your  acts  of  parliament,  and  by 
demonstrating  amicable  dispositions  towards  your 
colonies.  On  the  other  hand,  to  deter  you  from 
perseverance  in  your  present  ruinous  measures, 
every  danger  and  every  hazard  impend  ;  foreign 
war  hanging  over  you  by  a  thread  ;  France  and 
Spain  watching  your  conduct,  and  waiting  for  the 
maturity  of  your  errors. 

"  If  the  ministers  persevere  in  thus  misadvising 
and  misleading  the  king,  I  will  not  say  that  the  king 
is  betrayed,  but  I  will  pronounce  that  the  kingdom 
is  undone  ;  I  will  not  say,  that  they  can  alienate  the 
affections  of  his  subjects  from  his  crown,  but  I  will 
affirm,  that,  the  American  jewel  out  of  it,  they  will 
make  the  crown  not  worth  his  wearing." 

The  words  of  Chatham,  when  reported  to  the 
king,  recalled  his  last  interview  with  George  Gren- 
ville,  and  stung  him  to  the  heart.  He  raved  at  the 
wise  counsels  of  the  greatest  statesman  of  his  do- 
minions, as  the  words  of  an  abandoned  politician; 
classed  him  with  Temple  and  Grenville  as  "void  of 
gratitude ; "  and  months  afterwards  was  still  looking 
for  the  time,  "  when  decrepitude  or  age  should  put 
an  end  to  him  as  the  trumpet  of  sedition." 

With  a  whining  delivery,  of  which  the  bad  effect 
was  heightened  by  its  vehemence,  Suffolk  assured 


202  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the  house,  that  in  spite  of  Lord  Chatham's  prophecy, 
— ^  the  government  was  resolved  to  repeal  not  one  of 
1  Jan5    khe  acts,  but  to  use  all  possible  means  to  bring  the 
20.     Americans  to  obedience.     After  declaiming  against 
their  conduct  with  a  violence  that  was  almost  mad- 
ness, he  boasted  of  "having  been  one  of  the  first  to 
advise  coercive  measures." 

Shelburne  gave  his  adhesion  to  the  sentiments  of 
Chatham,  not  from  personal  engagements,  but  solely 
on  account  of  his  conviction  of  their  wisdom,  justice, 
and  propriety.  Camden,  who  in  the  discussion  sur- 
passed every  one  but  Chatham,  returned  to  his  old 
ground.  a  This,"  he  declared,  "  I  will  say,  not  only 
as  a  statesman,  politician,  and  philosopher,  but  as  a 
common  lawyer ;  my  lords,  you  have  no  right  to 
tax  America;  the  natural  rights  of  man,  and  the  im- 
mutable laws  of  nature,  are  all  with  that  people. 
King,  lords,  and  commons,  are  fine  sounding  names ; 
but  king,  lords,  and  commons  may  become  tyrants 
as  well  as  others  ;  it  is  as  lawful  to  resist  the  tyranny 
of  many  as  of  one.  Somebody  once  asked  the  great 
Selden  in  what  book  you  might  find  the  law  for 
resisting  tyranny.  c  It  has  always  been  the  custom 
of  England,'  answered  Selden,.4 and  the  custom  of 
England  is  the  law  of  the  land.'" 

"My  lords,"  said  Lord  Gower  with  contemptu- 
ous sneers,  "let  the  Americans  talk  about  their 
natural  and  divine  rights !  their  rights  as  men  and 
citizens !  their  rights  from  God  and  nature !  I  am 
for  enforcing  these  measures."  Rochford  held  Lord 
Chatham,  jointly  with  the  Americans,  responsible  in 
his  own  person  for  disagreeable  consequences.  Lyt- 
telton  reproached  Chatham  with  spreading  the  fire 


CHATHAM   LAYS    THE   FOUNDATION    OF    PEACE.  203 

of  sedition,   and    the  Americans  with  designing   to  CHAP. 
emancipate  themselves  from  the  act  of  navigation. 

Chatham  closed  the  debate  as  he  had  opened  it,  l  Ja7n5  • 
by  insisting  on  the  right  of  Great  Britain  to  regulate  20. 
the  commerce  of  the  whole  empire ;  but  as  to  the 
right  of  the  Americans  to  exemption  from  taxation, 
except  by  their  implied  or  express  assent,  they  de- 
rived it  from  God,  nature,  and  the  British  constitu- 
tion. Franklin  with  rapt  admiration  listened  to  the 
man,  who  on  that  day  had  united  the  highest  wisdom 
and  eloquence.  "  His  speech,"  said  the  young  Wil- 
liam Pitt,  "  was  the  most  forcible  that  can  be  imag- 
ined ;  in  matter  and  manner  far  beyond  what  I  can 
express ;  it  must  have  an  infinite  effect  without  doors, 
the  bar  being  crowded  with  Americans." 

The  statesmanship  of  Chatham  and  the  close 
reasoning  of  Camden,  "  availed  no  more  than  the 
whistling  of  the  winds ;  "  the  motion  was  rejected  by 
a  vote  of  sixty-eight  against  eighteen ;  but  the  duke 
of  Cumberland,  one  of  the  king's  own  brothers,  was 
found  in  the  minority.  The  king,  triumphing  in  "  the 
very  handsome  majority,"  was  sure  "  nothing  could  be 
more  calculated  to  bring  the  Americans  to  sub- 
mission;" but  the  debate  of  that  day,  notwithstand- 
ing that  Buckingham  had  expressed  his  adherence  to 
his  old  opinion  of  the  propriety  of  the  declaratory 
act,  went  forth  to  the  colonies  as  an  assurance  that 
the  inevitable  war  would  be  a  war  with  a  ministry, 
not  with  the  British  people.  It  took  from  the  con- 
test the  character  of  internecine  hatred,  to  be  trans- 
mitted from  generation  to  generation,  and  showed 
that  the  true  spirit  of  England,  which  had  grown 
great  by  freedom,  was  on  the  side  of  America.  Its 


204  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  independence  was  foreshadowed,  and  three  of  Chat- 
— ^  ham's  hearers  on  that  day,  Franklin,  Shelburne,  and 
lJan5'  kis  own  son,  William  Pitt,  never  ceased  in  exertions, 
20.     till  their  joint  efforts  established  peace  and  inter- 
national good  will. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE  PEOPLE  OF  NEW  YORK  TRUE  TO  UNION. 
JANUARY — FEBRUARY,  1775 

WHILE  Gage  was  waiting  for  England  to  undertake 
in  earnest  the  subjugation  of  America,  the  king 
expected  every  moment  to  hear  that  the  small  but 
well-disciplined  force  at  Boston  had  struck  a  deci- 
sive blow  at  a  disorderly  "rabble."  Neither  he 
nor  his  ministers  believed  the  hearty  union  of  so 
vast  a  region  as  America  possible.  But  at  the  one 
extreme,  New  Hampshire  in  convention  unanimously 
adhered  to  the  recent  congress,  and  elected  dele- 
gates to  the  next.  At  the  other,  South  Carolina  on 
the  eleventh  of  January  held  a  general  meeting,  Ja 
which  was  soon  resolved  into  a  provincial  congress, 
with  Charles  Pinckney  for  president.  They  then 
called  upon  their  deputies  to  explain,  why  they  had 
not  included  in  the  list  of  grievances  the  entire 
series  of  monopolies  and  restrictions  ;  and  they 
murmured  at  the  moderation  of  Virginia  which  had 
refused  to  look  further  back  than  1763.  Gadsden 
proposed  to  strike  out  the  exceptional  privilege  in 

VOL.  VII.  18 


206  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CxixR  ^e    associati°n  m   favor   of    exporting   rice.      The 
— > —  torrent  of  enthusiasm  was  able  to  have  broken  down 
ljln.'  ^e  Plea  °f  interest;  and  after  a  debate  of  a  whole 
11.     day,  in  which  John  Rutledge  pointed  out  the  practi- 
cal inequality  and  general  impolicy  of  extending  the 
restriction,  nearly  half  the  body,  seventy-five  mem- 
bers against  eighty-seven,  were  still  ready  to  sacrifice 
the  whole  rice  crop.     Had  the  minority  prevailed, 
they  would  have  impoverished  the  province  without 
benefit  to  the  union ;  South  Carolina  wisely  adopted 
the  measures  of  the  general  congress  without  change, 
completed  her  internal  organization,  and  re-elected 
delegates    to   the   continental   congress.      If   blood 
should  be  spilt  in  Massachusetts,  her  sons  were  to 
rise  in  arms. 

The  congress  called  at  Savannah,  failed  of  its  end, 
since  five  only  out  of  twelve  parishes  in  the  province 
were  represented.  But  on  the  southern  border,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  parish  of  St.  John,  chiefly  de- 
scendants of  New  England  people,  mocked  by  the 
royalists  as  Puritans,  Independents,  republicans,  or 
at  least  Oliverians,  conformed  to  the  resolutions 
of  the  continental  congress,  appointed  Lyman  Hall 
to  represent  them  in  Philadelphia,  and  set  apart 
two  hundred  barrels  of  rice  for  their  brethren  in 
Boston. 

In   Virginia  all  eyes   turned  to  Washington  as 

Jan     *ke  adviser  m  military  affairs.     On  the  seventeenth 

IT-     of  January  he  presided  over  a  meeting  of  the  men 

of  Fairfax   county  between   sixteen  and  fifty  years 

of  age,  who  voted  to  enroll  themselves  in  companies 

of  sixty-eight  men,  under  officers  of  their  own  choice. 

They  also  formed  an  association  to  defend  their  re 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  NEW  YORK  TRUE  TO  UNION.        207 

ligion,  laws,  and  rights.     The  committee  of  North-  CHAP. 

ampton  county  offered  a  premium  for  the  manufac <~^ 

ture  of  gunpowder.  Dunmore's  excursion  to  the  froii-  *j™' 
tiers  had  justified  a  prorogation  of  the  assembly  until 
the  second  of  February ;  but  when,  near  the  end  of 
January,  the  colony  was  surprised  by  a  further  pro- 
rogation to  May,  Peyton  Randolph,  as  the  organ  of 
the  people  against  the  representative  of  the  crown, 
called  upon  the  several  counties  to  choose  deputies 
to  a  colony  convention  to  be  held  on  the  twentieth 
of  March.  ' 

Maryland  was  encouraged  by  Thomas  Johnson, 
a  patriot  venerated  and  loved  for  his  private  virtues ; 
in  public  life  looking  always  to  the  general  good ; 
neither  hasty  nor  backward  ;  quick  to  perceive 
what  was  possible,  and  effectively  assisting  to  do  it ; 
joining  modesty  and  practical  wisdom  to  zeal  and 
courage.  The  Presbyterians  of  Baltimore  resolutely 
supported  "the  good  old  cause."  Near  Annapolis, 
the  volunteers  whom  Charles  Lee  began  to  muster, 
melted  away  before  his  overbearing  manner  and 
incapacity ;  but  the  people  would  hear  of  no  oppo- 
sition to  the  recommendations  of  congress.  They 
invited  a  voluntary  offering  to  the  amount  of  ten 
thousand  pounds,  for  the  purchase  of  arms  and  am- 
munition ;  and  taking  the  sword  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  governor,  they  elected  their  own  officers  to 
defend  Massachusetts  and  themselves.  In  the  lower 
counties  on  Delaware,  a  little  army  that  stood  in  the 
same  relation  to  the  people,  sprung  up  from  the 
general  enthusiasm. 

The  trust  of  the  ministry  was  in  the  central 
provinces.  To  divide  the  colonies  they  were  urged 


208  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  to  petition  the  king    separately,    in  the  hope  that 
— r—  some   one  of    them   would   offer   acceptable   terms. 
Especially   crown    officers    and    royalists,   practised 
every  art  to  separate  New  York  from  the  general 
union.     The  city  of  New  York,  unlike  Boston,  was 
a  corporation  with  a  mayor  of  the  king's  appoint- 
ment.    There  the  president  of  the  chartered  college 
taught,  that  "  Christians  are  required  to  be  subject  to 
the  higher  powers ;  that  an  apostle  enjoined  submis- 
sion to  Nero;"  that   the   friends  of  the  American 
congress  were  as  certainly  guilty  of  "  an  unpardonable 
crime,  as  that  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  were  inspired 
men."    There  the  Episcopal  clergy  fomented  a  distrust 
of  the  New  England  people,  as  "rebellious  republi- 
cans,  hairbrained    fanatics;    intolerant  towards  the 
church  of  England,  Quakers,  and  Baptists ;  doubly 
intolerant  towards  the  Germans  and  Dutch."    There 
a  corrupt  influence   grew  out  of  contracts  for  the 
army.     There  the  timid  were  incessantly  alarmed  by 
stories   that   "  the    undisciplined    men  of  America 
could  not  withstand  a  disciplined  army ; "  that "  Cana- 
dians and  unnumbered  tribes  of  savages  might  be 
let  loose  upon  them ; "  and  that  in  case  of  war,  "  the 
Americans  must  be  treated  as  vanquished  rebels." 
The  assembly  of  New  York,  which  had  been  chosen 
six    years    before    during    a    momentary  prejudice 
against  lawyers  and  Presbyterians,  had   been  care- 
fully continued.     New  York,  too,  was  the  seat  of  a 
royal    government,    which    dispensed    commissions, 
offices,  and  grants  of  land,  gathered  round  its  little 
court  a  social  circle  to  which  loyalty  gave  the  tone, 
and  had  for  more  than  eight  years  craftily  conducted 
the  administration  with  the  design  to  lull  ^discontent. 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  NEW  YORK  TRUE  TO  UNION.        209 

It  permitted  the  assembly  to  employ,  as  its  own  CHAP. 
agent,  Edmund  Burke,  whose  genius  might  inspire  — r— - 
hope  to  the  last.  In  the  name  of  the  ministry,  it 
lavished  promises  of  favor  and  indulgence ;  extended 
the  boundaries  of  the  province  at  the  north  to  the 
Connecticut  river ;  and  contrary  to  the  sense  of  right 
of  Lord  Dartmouth,  supported  the  claims  of  New 
York  speculators  to  Vermont  lands  a^inst  the 
New  Hampshire  grants,  under  which  populous  vil- 
lages had  grown  up.  Both  Tryon  and  Golden  pro- 
fessed,  moreover,  a  sincere  desire  to  take  part  with 
the  colony  in  obtaining  a  redress  of  all  grievances, 
and  an  improvement  of  its  constitution;  and  Dart- 
mouth himself  was  made  to  express  the  hope  uof 
a  happy  accommodation  upon  some  general  constitu- 
tional plan."  Such  a  union  with  the  parent  state, 
the  New  York  committee  declared  to  be  the  object 
of  their  earnest  solicitude ;  even  Jay  "  held  nothing 
in  greater  abhorrence  than  the  malignant  charge  of 
aspiring  after  independence."  "If  you  find  the  com- 
plaints of  your  constituents  to  be  well  grounded," 
said  Golden  to  the  New  York  assembly  in  January, 
"pursue  the  means  of  redress  which  the  constitution 
has  pointed  out.  Supplicate  the  throne,  and  our 
most  gracious  sovereign  will  hear  and  relieve  you 
with  paternal  tenderness." 

In  this  manner  the  chain  of  union  was  to  be 
broken,  and  the  ministry  to  win  over  at  least  one 
co]ony  to  a  separate  negotiation.  The  royalists  were 
so  persuaded  of  the  success  of  their  scheme,  that  Gage, 
who  had  a  little  before  written  for  at  least  twenty 
thousand  men,  sent  word  to  the  secretary  in  January, 
that  "  if  a  respectable  force  is  seen  in  the  field,  the 

VOL.    VII.  18* 


210  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CxixR  most  ^noxious  of  the  leaders  seized,  and  a  pardon 
— • —  proclaimed  for  all  others,  government  will  come   off 

1775.       .    ,       .  -,         .^      ! 

Jan.    victorious,  and  with   less   opposition  than  was  ex- 
pected a  few  months  ago." 

Jan.  On  the  twenty-sixth  of  January  the  patriot 
'  Abraham  Ten  Broeck,  of  the  New  York  assembly, 
moved  to  take  into  consideration  the  proceedings 
of  the  continental  congress ;  but  though  he  was  ably 
seconded  by  Philip  Schuyler,  by  George  Clinton,  and 
by  the  larger  number  of  the  members  who  were  of 
Dutch  descent,  the  vote  was  lost  by  a  majority  of  one. 
Of  the  eleven  who  composed  the  majority,  eight 
had  been  of  that  committee  of  correspondence,  who 
in  their  circular  letter  to  the  other  colonies,  had 
advised  a  congress ;  and  Jauncey,  a  member  of  the 
committee  of  fifty-one,  had  been  present  when  their 
letter  of  May  in  favor  of  a  congress,  was  unanimously 
approved. 

The  assembly,  now  in  its  seventh  year,  had  long 
since  ceased  to  represent  the  people ;  yet  the  friends 
to  government  plumed  themselves  on  this  victory, 
saying  openly,  "  No  one  among  gentlemen  dares  to 
support  the  proceedings  of  congress ; "  and  Golden 
exclaimed,  "  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  de- 
part in  peace."  "  That  one  vote  was  worth  a  million 
sterling,"  said  Gamier  to  Rochford  with  an  air  of 
patronage,  on  hearing  the  news,  while  he  explained 
to  Vergennes  that  the  vote  was  to  the  ministry  worth 
nothing  at  all,  that  New  York  was  sure  to  act  with 
the  rest  of  the  continent. 

The  royalists  hoped  for  a  combined  expression  of 
opinion  in  the  central  states.  In  January,  the  Qua- 
kers of  Pennsylvania  published  an  epistle,  declaring 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  NEW  YORK  TRUE  TO  UNION.        211 

that  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  of  this  world.  CHAP. 

XIX 

*and  that  they  would  religiously  observe  the  rule  not  >— r— 
to  fight ;  and  the  meeting  of  the  Friends  of  Pennsyl- 
vania  and  New  Jersey  gave  their  "  testimony  against 
every  usurpation  of  power  and  authority  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  laws  of  government.''  But  the  legislature 
of  Pennsylvania  had,  in  December,  unreservedly  ap- 
proved the  proceedings  of  the  continental  congress, 
and  elected  seven  delegates  to  the  next  congress  in 
May.  The  popular  convention  of  that  colony,  sup- 
ported by  the  inflexibility  of  Thomson,  and  the 
vivacity  and  address  of  Mifflin,  now  pledged  theii 
constituents  at  every  hazard  to  defend  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  America,  and,  if  necessary,  to  resist  force 
by  force.  Unanimously  adhering  to  the  resolves  of 
the  congress,  they  also  recommended  domestic  manu- 
factures, and  led  the  way  to  a  law  "  prohibiting  the 
future  importation  of  slaves." 

"  Do  not  give  up,"  wrote  the  town  of  Mon  mouth 
in  New  Jersey  to  the  Bostonians  ;  "  and  if  you  should 
want  any  further  supply  of  bread,  let  us  know."  On 
the  twenty-fourth  of  January,  the  assembly  of  that 
colony,  without  a  dissenting  voice,  adopted  the  meas- 
ures of  the  last  general  congress,  and  elected  delegates 
to  the  next.  Three  weeks  later,  it  was  persuaded, 
like  New  York,  to  transmit  a  separate  petition  to 
the  king;  but  its  petition  presented  the  American 
grievances  without  abatement. 

The  assembly  of  New  York  would  neither  print 
letters  of  the  committee  of  correspondence ;  nor  vote 
thanks  to  the  New  York  delegates  to  the  congress ; 
nor  express  satisfaction  that  the  merchants  and  in- 
habitants of  the  province  adhered  to  the  continental 


•212  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

°xixP'  associati°n-  On  the  twenty-third  of  February,  it  was 
— r— '  moved  to  send  delegates  to  the  general  congress  in 
}J?eb.'  -^av-  Strenuous  debates  arose ;  Schuyler  and  Clin- 
23.  ton  speaking  several  times  on  the  one  side,  Brush 
and  Wilkins  very  earnestly  on  the  other ;  but  the 
motion  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  nine  to  seventeen. 
The  vote  proved  nothing  but  how  far  prejudice, 
corruption,  pride,  and  attachment  to  party  could 
make  a  legislative  body  false  to  its  constituents.  The 
people  of  New  York  were  thrown  back  upon  them* 
selves,  under  circumstances  of  difficulty  that  had  no 
parallel  in  other  colonies.  They  had  no  legally  con- 
stituted body  to  form  their  rallying  point ;  and  at  a 
time  when  the  continental  congress  refused  to  sanc- 
tion any  revolutionary  act  even  in  Massachusetts, 
they  were  compelled  to  proceed  exclusively  by  the 
methods  of  revolution.  Massachusetts  was  sustained 
by  its  elective  council  and  its  annually  elected  assem- 
bly ;  New  York  had  a  council  holding  office  at  the 
king's  will,  and  an  assembly  continued  in  existence 
from  year  to  year  by  the  king's  prerogative.  Yet  the 
patriotism  of  the  colony  was  sure  to  emerge  from  all 
these  obstacles ;  and  its  first  legitimate  organ  was 
the  press. 

Charles  Lee  denied  the  military  capacity  of  Eng- 
land, as  she  could  with  difficulty  enlist  recruits  enough 
to  keep  her  regiments  full ;  and  he  insisted  that  in  a 
few  months  efficient  infantry  might  be  formed  of 
Americans. 

A  pamphlet  from  the  pen  of  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, had  been  in  circulation  since  December  ;  in  Feb- 
ruary, when  the  necessity  of  the  appeal  to  the  people 
was  become  more  "and  more  urgent,  the  genial  pilgrim 


THE  PEOPLE  01  NEW  YORK  TRUE  TO  UNION.        213 

from  the  south  again  put  forth  all  his  ability,  with  a  CHAP. 
determined  interest  in  the  coming  struggle,  as  if  he 
had  sprung  from  the  soil  whose  rights  he  defended. 
Strong  in  the  sincerity  of  his  convictions,  he  address- 
ed the  judgment,  not  the  passions,  aiming  not  at  bril- 
liancy of  expression,  but  justness  of  thought,  severe 
in  youthful  earnestness.  "  I  lament,"  wrote  Hamil- 
ton, "  the  unnatural  quarrel  between  the  parent  state 
and  the  colonies  ;  and  most  ardently  wish  for  a  speedy 
reconciliation,  a  perpetual  and  mutually  beneficial 
union.  I  am  a  warm  advocate  for  limited  monarchy, 
and  an  unfeigned  well-wisher  to  the  present  royal 
family ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  I  am  inviolably  at- 
tached to  the  essential  rights  of  mankind,  to  the  true 
interests  of  society,  to  civil  liberty  as  the  greatest  of 
terrestrial  blessings." 

"  You  are  quarrelling  for  threepence  a  pound  on 
tea,  an  atom  on  the  shoulders  of  a  giant,"  said  the 
tories  ;  and  he  answered :  "  The  parliament  claims  a 
right  to  tax  us  in  all  cases  whatever ;  its  late  acts  are 
in  virtue  of  that  claim  ;  it  is  the  principle  against 
which  we  contend." 

"  You  should  have  had  recourse  to  remonstrance 
and  petition,"  said  the  time-servers.  "  In  the  infancy 
of  the  present  dispute,1'  rejoined  Hamilton,  "  we  ad- 
dressed the  throne ;  our  address  was  treated  with 
contempt  and  neglect.  The  first  American  congress 
in  1765  did  the  same,  and  met  with  similar  treat- 
ment. The  exigency  of  the  times  requires  vigorous 
remedies  ;  we  have  no  resource  but  in  a  restriction 
of  our  trade,  or  in  a  resistance  by  arms." 

"  But  Great  Britain,"  it  was  said,  "  will  enforce  her 
claims  by  fire  and  sword.  The  Americans  are  with- 


214  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  out  fortresses,  without  discipline,  without  military 
^^  stores,  without  money,  and  cannot  keep  an  army  in 
j£e7b5'  the  field;  nor  can  troops  be  disciplined  without  regu- 
lar pay  and  government  by  an  unquestioned  legal 
authority.  A  large  number  of  armed  men  might  be 
got  together  near  Boston,  but  in  a  week  they  would  be 
obliged  to  disperse  to  avoid  starving."  "  The  courage 
of  Americans,"  replied  Hamilton,  "  has  been  proved. 
The  troops  Great  Britain  could  send  against  us, 
would  be  but  few ;  our  superiority  in  number  would 
balance  our  inferiority  in  discipline.  It  would  be 
hard,  if  not  impracticable,  to  subjugate  us  by  force. 
An  armament  sufficient  to  enslave  America,  will  put 
her  to  an  insupportable  expense.  She  would  be  laid 
open  to  foreign  enemies.  Euin  like  a  deluge  would 
pour  in  from  every  quarter." 

"  Great  Britain,"  it  was  said,  "  will  seek  to  bring 
us  to  a  compliance  by  putting  a  stop  to  our  whole 
*  trade."  "  "We  can  live  without  trade,"  answered 
Hamilton ;  "  food  and  clothing  we  have  within  our- 
selves. With  due  cultivation,  the  southern  colonies, 
in  a  couple  of  years,  would  afford  cotton  enough  to 
clothe  the  whole  continent.  Our  climate  produces 
wool,  flax,  and  hemp.  The  silkworm  answers  as  well 
here  as  in  any  part  of  the  world.  %If  manufactures 
should  once  be  established,  they  will  pave  the  way 
still  more  to  the  future  grandeur  and  glory  of  Amer- 
ica ;  and  will  render  it  still  securer  against  encroach- 
ments of  tyranny." 

"  You  will  raise  the  resentment  of  the  united  in- 
habitants of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,"  objected  his 
adversaries.  "  They  are  our  friends,"  said  he  ;  "  they 
know  how  dangerous  to  their  liberties  the  loss  of 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  NEW  YORK  TRUE  TO  UNION.        215 

ours  must  be.     The  Irish   will  sympathize  with  us  CHAP. 
and  commend  our  conduct."  ^— 


The  tories  built  confidently  upon  disunion  among 
the  colonies.  "  A  little  time,"  replied  Hamilton,  "  will 
awaken  them  from  their  slumbers.  I  please  myself 
with  the  flattering  prospect,  that  they  will,  ere  long, 
unite  in  one  indissoluble  chain." 

It  was  a  common  argument  among  the  royalists  of 
those  days,  that  there  were  no  immutable  principles 
of  political  science  ;  that  government  was  the  crea- 
ture of  civil  society,  and  therefore  that  an  established 
government  was  not  to  be  resisted.  To  this  the,  young 
philosopher  answered  rightly  :  "  The  supreme  intelli- 
gence, who  rules  the  world,  has  constituted  an  eter- 
nal law,  which  is  obligatory  upon  all  mankind,  prior 
to  any  human  institution  whatever.  He  gave  exist- 
ence to  man,  together  with  the  means  of  preserving 
and  beautifying  that  existence  ;  and  invested  him 
with  an  inviolable  right  to  pursue  liberty  and  per- 
sonal safety.  Natural  liberty  is  a  gift  of  the  Creator 
to  the  whole  human  race.  Civil  liberty  is  only  natu- 
ral liberty,  modified  and  secured  by  the  sanctions  of 
civil  society.  It  is  not  dependent  on  human  caprice  ; 
but  it  is  conformable  to  the  constitution  of  man,  as 
well  as  necessary  to  the  well  being  of  society." 

"  The  colony  of  New  York,"  continued  his  antag- 
onists, "  is  subject  to  the  supreme.  legislative  authority 
of  Great  Britain."  "  I  deny  that  we  are  dependent 
on  the  legislature  of  Great  Britain,"  he  answered  ;  and 
he  fortified  his  denial  by  an  elaborate  discussion  of 
colonial  history  and  charters. 

It  was  retorted,  that  New  York  had  no  charter. 
"The  sacred  rights  of  mankind,"  he  rejoined,  "are 


216  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  not  to  be  rummaged  for  among  old  parchments  or 
' — « — '  musty  records.  They  are  written,  as  with  a  sun- 
1Feb.  beam7  in  the  whole  volume  of  human  nature  by  the 
hand  of  the  divinity  itself ;  and  can  never  be  erased 
or  obscured  by  mortal  power.  Civil  liberty  cannot 
be  wrested  from  any  people  without  the  most  mani- 
fold violation  of  justice,  and  the  most  aggravated 
guilt.  The  nations  Turkey,  Russia,  France,  Spain, 
and  all  other  despotic  kingdoms  in  the  world,  have 
an  inherent  right,  whenever  they  please,  to  shake  off 
the  yoke  of  servitude,  though  sanctioned  by  imme- 
morial usage,  and  to  model  their  government  upon 
the  principles  of  civil  liberty." 

So  reasoned  the  gifted  West  Indian,  as  though 
the  voices  of  the  Puritans  had  blended  with  the  soft 
tropical  breezes  that  rocked  his  cradle  ;  or  rather  as 
one  who  had  caught  glimpses  of  the  divine  archetype 
of  freedom.  The  waves  of  turbulent  opinion  dashed 
against  the  obstacles  to  their  free  course ;  New  York 
still  desired  a  constitutional  union,  embracing  Great 
Britain  and  America,  but  was  resolved,  at  all  events, 
to  make  common  cause  with  the  continent. 


CHAPTEE    XX. 

PARLIAMENT  DECLARES  MASSACHUSETTS  IN  REBELLION. 

JANUARY  23 — FEBRUARY  9,  1*775. 

« 

THE  confidence  of  the   ministry  reposed  more  and  CHAP. 
more  on  the  central  provinces,  and  Dartmouth  took  <~~<-L* 
for  granted  the  peaceful  settlement  of  every  question;  1J75- 
yet  six  sloops  of  war  and  two  frigates  were  under 
orders  for  America,  and  it  was  ostentatiously  heralded 
that  seven  hundred  marines  from  England,  and  three 
regiments  of  infantry  with  one  of  light  horse  from 
Ireland,  making  a  reinforcement  of  two  thousand  four 
hundred  and  eighteen  men,  were  to  be  prepared  for 
embarkation;    "less    to    act    hostilely   against    the 
Americans,  than  to  encouragg  the  friends  of  govern- 
ment." 

In  the  house  of  commons,  the  various  petitions  in 
behalf  of  America,  including  those  from  London  and 
Bristol,  were  consigned  to  a  committee  of  oblivion, 
and  ridiculed  as  already  "  dead  in  law."  Hayley,  of 
London,  rebuked  the  levity  of  the  house.  "  The  re- 
jection of  the  petitions  of  the  trading  interests,"  said 
he,  on  the  twenty^ixth  of  January,  "  must  drive  on  a 

VOL.    VII.  19 


218 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


CHAP,  civil  war  with  America."  "The  Americans,"  argued 
Jenkinson,  "ought  to  submit  to  every  act  of  the 
English  legislature."  "  England,"  said  Burke,  "  is  like 
the  archer  that  saw  his  own  child  in  the  hands  of  the 
adversary,  against  whom  he  was  going  to  draw  his 
bow."  Fox  charged  upon  North,  that  the  country 
was  on  the  point  of  being  involved  in  a  civil  war  by 
his  incapacity."  North  complained:  "The  gentle- 
man blames  all  my  administration  ;  yet  he  defended 
and  supported  much  of  it ;  nor  do  I  know  how  I  have 
deserved  his  reproaches."  "  I  can  tell  the  noble  lord 
how,"  cried  Fox  ;  "  by  every  species  of  falsehood  and 
treachery."  Sir  George  Savile  asked  that  Franklin 
might  be  heard  at  the  bar  in  support  of  the  address 
of  the  American  continental  congress  to  the  king ; 
and  after  a  violent  debate,  the  house,  by  the  usual 
majority,  refused  even  to  receive  Franklin's  petition. 
The  ministry  were  self-willed  and  strangely  confi- 
dent. The  demand  of  Gage  for  twenty  thousand 
men  was  put  aside  with  scorn.  "  The  violences  com- 
mitted by  those  who  have  taken  up  arms  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,"  wrote  Dartmouth,  in  the  king's  name, 
"  have  appeared  to  me  as  the  acts  of  a  rude  rabble, 
without  plan,  without  concert,  and  without  conduct ; 
and  therefore  I  think  tjjat  a  smaller  force  now,  if  put 
to  the  test,  would  be  able  to  encounter  them.  The 
first  and  essential  step  to  be  taken  towards  re-estab- 
lishing government,  would  be  to  arrest  and  imprison 
the  principal  actors  and  abettors  in  the  provincial 
congress,  whose  proceedings  appear  in  every  light  to 
be  treason  and  rebellion.  If  means  be  devised  to 
keep  the  measure  secret  until  the  moment  of  execu- 
tion, it  can  hardly  fail  of  success.  Even  if  it  cannot 


MASSACHUSETTS    DECLARED    IN    REBELLION.  219 

be  accomplished  without  bloodshed,  and  should  be  a  CHAP 
signal  for  hostilities,  I  must  again  repeat,  that  any 
efforts  of  the  people,  unprepared  to  encounter  with  a 
regular  force,  cannot  be  very  formidable.  The  im- 
prisonment of  those  who  shall  be  made  prisoners  will 
prevent  their  doing  any  further  mischief.  The  char- 
ter for  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  empowers 
the  governor  to  use  and  exercise  the  law  martial  in 
time  of  rebellion.  The  attorney  and  solicitor-general 
report  that  the  facts  stated  in  the  papers  you  have 
transmitted,  are  the  history  of  an  actual  and  open 
rebellion  in  that  province,  and  therefore  the  exercise 
of  that  power  upon  your  own  discretion  is  strictly 
justifiable." 

"The  minister  must  recede,"  wrote  Gamier  to 
Vergennes,  "  or  lose  America  forever."  "  Your  chief 
dependence,"  such  were  Franklin's  words  to  Massa- 
chusetts, u  must  be  on  your  own  virtue  and  unani- 
mity, which,  under  God,  will  bring  you  through  all 
difficulties." 

There  was  no  hope  in  England  but  from  Chat- 
ham, who  lost  not  a  moment  in  his  endeavor  to  pre- 
vent a  civil  war  before  it  should  be  inevitably  fixed ; 
saying,  "  God's  will  be  done,  and  let  the  old  and  new 
world  be  my  judge."  On  the  first*  day  of  February, 
he  presented  his  plan  for  "true  reconcilement  and 
national  accord."  It  was  founded  substantially  on  the 
proposal  of  the  American  congress ;  parliament  was 
to  repeal  the  statutes  complained  of,  and  to  re- 
nounce the  power  of  taxation;  America  in  turn 
was  to  recognise  its  right  of  regulating  the  com- 
merce of  the  whole  empire,  and  by  the  free  grants 
of  her  own  assemblies,  was  to  defray  the  expenses  of 


220  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  her  governments.  This  was  the  true  meaning  of  his 
^— r—  motion,  though  clauses  were  added  to  make  it  less 
unpayable  to  the  pride  of  the  British  legislature. 
Franklin  was  persuaded  that  he  sincerely  wished  to 
satisfy  the  Americans  ;  Jefferson,  on  reading  the  bill, 
hoped  that  it  might  bring  on  a  reconciliation ;  but 
Samuel  Adams  saw  danger  lurking  under  even  a 
conditional  recognition  of  the  supremacy  of  parlia- 
ment. "  Let  us  take  care,"  said  he,  "  lest,  instead  of 
a  thorn  in  the  foot,  we  have  a  dagger  in  the  heart." 

No  sooner  had  Chatham  concisely  invited  the 
assistance  of  the  house  in  adapting  his  crude  mate- 
rials to  the  great  end  of  an  honorable  and  permanent 
adjustment,  than  Dartmouth  spoke  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  subject,  and  asked  his  consent  that  the  bill 
should  lie  on  the  table  for  consideration.  "  I  expect 
nothing  more,"  was  the  ready  answer.  At  this  con- 
cession Sandwich,  speaking  for  the  majority  in  the 
cabinet,  grew  petulant.  "  The  proposed  measure," 
he  said,  "  deserves  only  contempt,  and  ought  to  be 
immediately  rejected.  I  can  never  believe  it  to  be 
the  production  of  any  British  peer.  It  appears  to 
me  rather  the  work  of  some  American ; "  and  turn- 
ing his  face  towards  Franklin,  who  stood  leaning 
on  the  bar,  "  I  fancy,"  he  continued,  "  I  have  in  my 
eye  the  person  who  drew  it  up,  one  of  the  bitterest 
and  most  mischievous  enemies  this  country  has  ever 
known." 

The  peers  looked  towards  the  American,  when 
Chatham  retorted :  "  The  plan  is  entirely  my  own ; 
but  if  I  were  the  first  minister,  and  had  the  care  of 
settling  this  momentous  business,  I  should  not  be 
ashamed  of  publicly  calling  to  my  assistance  a  person 


MASSACHUSETTS    DECLARED    IN    REBELLION.  221 

so  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  whole  of  American  cfx.P' 
affairs,  one  whom  all  Europe  ranks  with  our  Boyles  '    *~~ 
and  Newtons,  as  an  honor  not  to  the  English  nation    Feb. 
only,  but  to  human  nature." 

Overawed  by  the  temper  of  the  house,  Dart- 
mouth, with  his  wonted  weakness,  which  made  him 
execute  the  worst  measures  even  when  he  seemed 
inclined  to  the  best,  wheeled  round  against  his  own 
candor,  and.  declared  for  rejecting  the  plan  imme- 
diately. This  even  Grafton  advised ;  and  Gower 
demanded. 

Perceiving  the  fixed  purpose  of  the  ministry, 
Chatham  poured  upon  them  a  torrent  of  invective. 
"This  bill,"  said  he,  "though  rejected  here,  will 
make  its  way  to  the  public,  to  the  nation,  to  the  re- 
motest wilds  of  America ;  and  however  faulty  or  de- 
fective, it  will  at  least  manifest  how  zealous  I  have 
been  to  avert  those  storms  which  seem  ready  to  burst 
on  my  country.  Yet  I  am  not  surprised,  that  men 
who  hate  liberty,  should  detest  those  that  prize  it ; 
or  that  those  who  want  virtue  themselves  should 
persecute  those  who  possess  it.  The  whole  of  your 
political  conduct  has  been  one  continued  series  of 
weakness  and  temerity,  despotism  and  the  most  noto- 
rious servility,  incapacity  and  corruption.  I  must 
allow  you  one  merit,  a  strict  attention  to  your  own 
interests :  in  that  view,  who  can  wonder  that  you 
should  put  a  negative  on  any  measure  which  must  de- 
prive you  of  your  places,  and  reduce  you  to .  that  in- 
significance, for  which  God  and  nature  designed  you." 

Lord  Chatham's  bill,  though  on  so  important  a 
subject,  offered  by  so  great  a  statesman,  and  sup- 
ported by  most  able  and  learned  speakers,  was  re- 

VOL.    VII.  19* 


222  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  sisted  by  ignorance,  prejudice  and  passion,  by  mis- 
— ^  conceptions  and  wilful  perversion  of  plain  truth,  and 
was  reJected  on  the  first  reading  by  a  vote  of  sixty- 
one  to  thirty-two. 

"  Hereditary  legislators !  "  thought  Franklin. 
"  There  would  be  more  propriety,  in  having  hered- 
itary professors  of  mathematics !  But  the  elected 
house  of  commons  is  no  better,  nor  ever  will  be 
while  the  electors  receive  money  for  their  votes,  and 
pay  money  wherewith  ministers  may  bribe  their 
representatives  when  chosen."  Yet  the  wilfulness 
of  the  lords  was  happy  for  America  ;  for  Chatham's 
proposition  contained  clauses,  to  which  it  never  could 
safely  have  assented,  and  yet  breathed  a  spirit  which 
must  have  calmed  its  resentment,  distracted  its  coun- 
cils, and  palsied  its  will.  It  had  now  no  choice  left 
but  between  submission  and  independence. 

The  number  and  weight  of  the  minority  should 
have  led  the  ministers  to  pause ;  but  they  rushed  on 
with  headlong  indiscretion,  thinking  not  to  involve  the 
empire  in  civil  war,  but  to  subdue  the  Americans  by 
fear.  The  first  step  towards  inspiring  terror  was, 
tp  declare  Massachusetts  in  a  state  of  rebellion,  and 
to  pledge  the  parliament  and  the  whole  force  of 
Great  Britain  to  its  reduction ;  the  next,  by  pro- 
hibiting the  American  fisheries,  to  starve  New  Eng- 
land ;  the  next,  to  call  out  the  savages  on  the  rear  of 
the  colonies ;  the  next,  to  excite  a  servile  insurrection. 
Accordingly,  Lord  North  on  the  day  after  Chatham's 
defeat,  proposed  to  the  commons  a  joint  address  to 
the  king  to  declare  that  a  rebellion  existed  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  to  pledge  their  lives  and  properties  to 
its  suppression. 


MASSACHUSETTS    DECLARED    IN    REBELLION. 

"The  colonies  are  not  in  a  state  of  rebellion,"  CHAP. 
said  Dunning ;  "  but  resisting  the  attempt  to  estab- 
lish  despotism  in  America,  as  a  prelude  to  the  same 
system  in  the  mother  country.  Opposition  to  arbi- 
trary measures  is  warranted  by  the  constitution, 
and  established  by  precedent."  "Nothing  but  the 
display  of  vigor,"  said  Thurlow,  "  will  prevent  the 
American  colonies  becoming  independent  states." 

Grant,  the  same  officer,  who  had  been  scanda- 
lously beaten  at  Pittsburg,  and  had  made  himself  so 
offensive  in  South  Carolina,  asserted  amidst  the 
loudest  cheering,  that  he  knew  the  Americans  very 
well,  and  •  was  certain  they  would  not  fight ;  "  that 
they  were  not  soldiers  and  never  could  be  made  so, 
being  naturally  pusillanimous  and  incapable  of  dis- 
cipline; that  a  very  slight  force  would  be  more 
than  sufficient  for  their  complete  reduction ;  "  and  he 
fortified  his  statement  by  repeating  their  peculiar  ex- 
pressions, and  ridiculing  their  religious  enthusiasm, 
manners,  and  ways  of  living,  greatly  to  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  house. 

At  this  stage  of  the  debate,  Fox,  displaying  for 
the  first  time  the  full  extent  of  his  abilities,  which 
made  him  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the 
leading  debater  on  the  side  of  the  liberal  party  in 
England,  in  a  speech  of  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes, 
entered  into  the  history  of  the  dispute  with  great 
force  and  temper,  and  stated  truly,  that  "  the  reason 
why  the  colonies  objected  to  taxes  for  revenue  was, 
that  such  revenue  in  the  hands  of  government  took 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  people  that  were  to  be  gov- 
rned,  that  control  which  every  Englishman  thinks 
.he  ought  to  have  over  the  government  to  which  his 


224  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  rights  and  interests  are  intrusted."     The  defence  of 

— ^  the  ministry  rested  chiefly  on  Wedderburn.     Gibbon 

lp™'  had  prepared  himself  to  speak,  but  neither  he  nor 

Lord  George  Germain  could  find'  room  for  a  single 

word. 

Lord  North  again  shrunk  from  measures  against 
which  his  nature  revolted ;  and  Franklin,  whose  me 
diation  was  once  more  solicited,  received  a  papei 
containing  the  results  of  ministerial  conferences  on 
"the  hints"  which  he  had  written.  "We  desire 
nothing  but  what  is  necessary  to  our  security  and 
well-being,"  said  Franklin  to  the  friendly  agents  who 
came  to  him.  In  reply  they  declared  with  author- 
ity, that  the  repeal  of  the  tea-act  and  the  Boston 
port-act  would  be  conceded;  the  Quebec  act  might 
be  amended  by  reducing  the  province  to  its  ancient 
limits ;  but  the  Massachusetts  acts  must  be  continued, 
both  "as  real  amendments"  of  the  constitution  of 
that  province,  and  uas  a  standing  example  of  the 
power  of  parliament."  Franklin's  reply  was  brief: 
"While  parliament  claims  the  right  of  altering 
American  constitutions  at  pleasure,  there  can  be  no 
agreement,  for  we  are  rendered  unsafe  in  every  priv- 
.  ilege."  "  An  agreement  is  necessary  for  America,"  it 
was  answered ;  "  it  is  so  easy  for  Britain  to  burn  all 
your  seaport  towns."  "  My  little  property,"  rejoined 
Franklin,  "  consists  of  houses  in  those  towns ;  you  may 
make  bonfires  of  them  whenever  you  please ;  the  fear 
of  losing  them  will  never  alter  my  resolution  to  resist 
to  the  last  the  claim  of  parliament." 

The  plan  of  intimidation  proceeded.  When  on 
the  sixth  of  February  the  address  was  reported  to 
the  house,  Lord  John  Cavendish  earnestly  "depre- 


MASSACHUSETTS    DECLARED    IN    REBELLION.  225 

cated  civil  \^ar,  necessarily  involving  a  foreign  one  CHAP. 
also."     "  A  fit  and  proper  resistance,"  said  Wilkes,  ' — r~ 
"is   a  revolution,   not  a  rebellion.      Who  can   tell,  1^Jb5' 
whether   in   consequence   of  this  day's  violent  and      7. 
mad  address,  the  scabbard  may  not  be  thrown  away 
by  the  Americans  as  well  as  by  us,  and  should  suc- 
cess   attend  them,   whether,    in   a  few    years,   the 
Americans  may  not   celebrate  the   glorious  era  of 
the  revolution  of  IT 7 5  as  we  do  that  of  1688  ?     Suc- 
cess crowned  the  generous  effort  of  our  forefathers  for 
freedom;  else  they  had  died  on  the  scaffold  as  trai- 
tors and  rebels,  and  the  period  of  our  history  which 
does  us  the  most  honor,  would  have  been  deemed   a 
rebellion  against  lawful  authority,  not  the  expulsion 
of  a  tyrant." 

During  the  debate,  which  lasted  till  half  past  two 
in  the  morning,  Lord  North  threw  off  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  tax  on  tea,  in  order  to  prepare  the  way 
for  offering  the  repeal  of  that  tax  as  the  basis  for 
conciliation.  It  was  too  late,  for  a  new  question  of 
the  power  of  parliament  over  charters  and  laws  had 
intervened.  The  disavowal  offended  his  colleagues, 
and  in  itself  was  not  honest ;  his  vote  had  decided 
the  measure  in  the  cabinet,  and  it  was  unworthy  of 
a  minister  of  the  crown  to  intimate  that  he  had  ob- 
sequiously followed  a  chief  like  Grafton,  or  yielded 
his  judgment  to  the  king. 

Lord  George  Germain  was  fitly  selected  to  de- 
liver the  message  of  the  commons  at  the  bar  of  the 
lords.  "There  is  in  the  address  one  paragraph  which 
I  totally  disclaim ; "  said  Buckingham ;  "  I  openly  de- 
lare,  I  will  risk  neither  life  nor  fortune  in  support 
of  the  measures  recommended.  Four-fifths  of  the 


226  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  nation  are  opposed  to  this  address ;  for  myself,  I  shall 
not  tread  in  the  steps  of  my  noble  but  ill-fated  an- 
cestor,  Lord  Strafford,  who.  first  courted  popular 
favor,  and  then  deserted  the  cause  he  had  embarked 
in ;  as  I  have  set  out  by  supporting  the  cause  of  the 
people,  so  I  shall  never,  for  any  temptation  whatso- 
ever, desert  or  betray  them." 

Mansfield,  as  if  in  concert  with  North,  took  the 
occasion  to  deny  having  advised  the  tea  tax ;  which 
he  condemned  as  the  most  absurd  measure  that  could 
be  imagined.  "The  original  cause  of  the  dispute," 
said  Camden,  "  is  the  duty  on  tea,"  and  he  too  dis- 
claimed having  had  the  least  hand  in  that  measure. 
"  It  is  mean,"  said  Grafton,  "  for  him  at  this  time  to 
screen  himself,  and  shift  the  blame  off  his  own  shoul- 
ders, to  lay  it  on  those  of  others.  The  measure  was 
consented  to  in  the  cabinet.  He  acquiesced  in  it ; 
he  presided  in  the  house  of  lords  when  it  passed 
through  its  several  stages ;  and  he  should  equally 
share  its  censure  or  its  merit." 

A  passionate  debate  ensued,  during  which  Mans- 
field, in  reply  to  Richmond,  praised  the  Boston  port 
act  and  its  attendant  measures,  including  the  regulat- 
ing act  for  Massachusetts,  as  worthy  to  be  gloried  in 
for  their  wisdom,  policy,  and  equity ;  but  he  denied 
that  they  were  in  any  degree  the  fruit  of  his  influ- 
ence. Now  they  were  founded  on  the  legal  opinions 
and  speeches  of  Mansfield,  and  he  had  often  in  the 
house  of  lords  been  the  mouth-piece  of  Hutchin- 
son,  whose  opinions  reached  him  through  Mauduit. 
Shelburne  insinuated  that  Mansfield's  disclaimer  was 
in  substance  not  correct.  Mansfield  retorted  by 
charging  Shelburne  with  uttering  gross  falsehoods; 


MASSACHUSETTS    DECLARED    IN    REBELLION.  227 

and   Shelburne   in  a  rejoinder  gave  the  illustrious  CHAP. 
jurist  the  lie.  ^r^> 

On  Thursday,  the  ninth  day  of  February,  the  lord 
chancellor,  the  speaker,  and  a  majority  of  the  lords 
and  commons  went  in  state  to  the  palace,  and  in  the 
presence  of  the  representatives  of  the  great  powers 
of  Europe,  presented  to  George  the  Third  the  san- 
guinary address  which  the  two  houses  of  parliament 
had  jointly  adopted,  and  which,  in  the  judgment  of 
Rockingham  and  his  friends,  "  amounted  to  a  declara- 
tion of  war."  The  king,  in  his  reply,  pledged  him- 
self speedily  and  effectually  to  enforce  "  obedience  to 
the  laws  and  the  authority  of  the  supreme  legisla- 
ture." His  heart  was  hardened.  Having  just  heard 
of  the  seizure  of  ammunition  at  the  fort  in  New 
Hampshire,  he  intended  that  his  language  should 
u  open  the  eyes  of  the  deluded  Americans."  "  If  it 
does  not,"  said  he  to  his  *  faltering  minister,  "  it  must 
set  every  delicate  man  at  liberty  to  avow  the  pro- 
priety of  the  most  coercive  measures." 


CHAPTEE   XXI. 


THE    SPIRIT    OF    NEW    ENGLAND. 


FEBBUABY,  1*7*75. 

CHAP.  ON  the  day  on  which  the  king  received  the  address 
of  parliament,  the  members  of  the  second  provincial 
congress  of  Massachusetts,  about  two  hundred  and 
fourteen  in  number,  appointed  eleven  men  as  their 
committee  of  safety,  charged  to  resist  every  attempt 
at  executing  the  acts  of  parliament.  For  this  purpose 
they  were  empowered  to  take  possession  of  the  war- 
like stores  of  the  province,  to  make  returns  of  the 
militia  and  minute  men,  and  to  muster  so  many  of  the 
militia  as  they  should  judge  necessary.  General 
officers  were  appointed  to  command  the  force  that 
should  be  so  assembled.  First  of  those  who  accepted 
the  trust  was  Artemas  Ward,  a  soldier  of  some  ex- 
perience in  the  French  war.  Next  him  as  brigadier, 
stood  Seth  Pomeroy,  the  still  older  veteran,  who  had 
served  at  the  siege  of  Louisburg. 

"Resistance  to  tyranny,"  thus  the  congress  ad- 
dressed the  inhabitants  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay, 
"  becomes  the  Christian  and  social  duty  of  each  indi- 


THE    SPIRIT   OF   NEW    ENGLAND.  229 

vidual.     Fleets,  troops,  and  every  implement  of  war  CHAP. 
are  sent  into  the  province,  to  wrest  from  you  that  — *— 
freedom  which  it  is  your  duty,  even  at  the  risk  of   1|Jb6' 
your  lives,  to  hand  inviolate  to  posterity.     Continue 
steadfast,  and  with  a  proper  sense  of  your  dependence 
on  God,  nobly  defend  those   rights  which  Heaven 
gave,  and  no  man  ought  to  take  from  us." 

These  rustic  statesmen,  in  their  sincere  simplicity, 
were  the  true  representatives  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Massachusetts.  They  came  together  tremulous 
with  emotion,  yet  resolved  from  duty  never  to  yield. 
They  were  frugal  even  to  parsimony,  making  the 
most  sparing  appropriations  ever  thought  of  by  a 
nation  preparing  for  war  ;  yet  they  held  their  prop- 
erty and  their  blood  of  less  account  than  liberty. 
They  were  startled  at  the  lightest  rustling  of  impend- 
ing danger,  but  they  were  no  more  moved  from  their 
deep  seated  purpose  than  the  granite  rock  which  seems 
to  quiver  with  the  flickering  shadow  of  the  overhang- 
ing cloud,  as  the  wind  drives  it  by.  "  Life  and  liberty 
shall  go  together,"  was  their  language.  "  Our  exist- 
ence as  a  free  people  absolutely  depends  on  our  acting 
with  spirit  and  vigor,"  said  Joseph  Warren ;  and  he 
wished  England  to  know  that  the  Americans  had 
courage  enough  to  fight  for  their  freedom.  "The 
people,"  said  Samuel  Adams,  "  will  -defend  their  liber- 
ties with  dignity.  One  regular  attempt  to  subdue 
this  or  any  other  colony,  whatever  may  be  the  first 
issue  of  the  attempt,  will  open  a  quarrel  which  will 
never  be  closed,  till  what  some  of  them  affect  to  ap- 
prehend, and  we  truly  deprecate,  shall  take  effect." 

The  second  provincial  congress  before  its  adjourn- 
ment appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  in  the  recess 

YOL.    VII.  20 


230  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  rules  and  regulations  for  the  constitutional  army. 
They  declined  to  levy  taxes  in  form ;  but  they  recom- 
mended  the  inhabitants  to  pay  all  their  province  tax 
to  a  treasurer  of  their  appointment.  They  re-elected 
their  old  delegates  to  congress.  They  forbade  work 
or  supplies  for  the  English  troops,  "  for,"  said  they, 
"  we  may  be  driven  to  the  hard  necessity  of  taking 
up  arms  in  our  own  defence."  They  urged  one  of 
their  committees  to  prepare  military  stores ;  and 
directed  reviews  of 'every  company  of  minute  men. 
Aware  of  the  design  of  the  ministry  to  secure  the 
Canadians  and  Indians,  they  authorized  communica- 
tions with  the  province  of  Quebec  through  the'  com- 
mittee of  correspondence  of  Boston.  A  delegation 
from  Connecticut  was  received,  and  measures  were 
concerted  for  corresponding  with  that  and  all  the 
other  colonies.  After  appointing  a  day  of  fasting, 
enjoining  the  colony  to  beware  of  a  surprise,  and 
recommending  military  discipline,  they  closed  a  ses- 
sion of  sixteen  days. 

The  spies  of  Gage  found  everywhere  the  people 
intent  on  military  exercises ;  or  listening  to  confident 
speeches  from  their  officers ;  or  learning  from  the 
clergy  to  esteem  themselves  as  of  the  tribe  of  Judah. 
"  Behold,"  said  one  of  the  ministers  at  a  very  full 
review  of  the  militia,  "  God  himself  is  with  us  for  our 
captain,  and  his  priests  with  sounding  trumpets  to  cry 
alarm.  O  children  of  Israel,"  thus  he  rebuked  the 
English  ;  "  fight  ye  not  against  the  Lord  God  of  your 
fathers  ;  for  ye  shall  not  prosper." 

On  these  bustling  preparations  of  men,  who  had 
no  artillery,  very  few  muskets  with  bayonets,  and 
no  treasury,  the  loyalists  looked  with  derision ; 


THE    SPIRIT    OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  231 

never  for  a  moment  doubting  that  the  power  of  CHAP. 
Great  Britain  would  trample  down,  repress,  and  s^v— • 
overwhelm  every  movement  of  insurrection.  To 
crush  the  spirit  of  resistance  by  terror,  and  to  diffuse 
a  cowardly  panic,  Daniel  Leonard,  of  Taunton,  speak- 
ing for  them  all,  held  up  the  spectres  of  u  high  trea- 
son," "  actual  rebellion,"  and  "  anarchy."  He  ran 
through  the  history  of  the  strife  ;  argued  that  it  was 
reasonable  for  America  to  share  in  the  national 
burden  as  in  the  national  benefit ;  that  there  was  no 
oppressive  exercise  of  the  power  of  parliament ;  that 
the  tax  of  threepence  on  tea  was  no  tyranny,  since  a 
duty  of  a  shilling,  imposed  as  a  regulation  of  trade, 
had  just  been  taken  off;  that  the  bounties  paid  in 
England  on  American  produce  exceeded  the  American 
revenue  more  than  fourfold ;  that  no  grievance  was 
felt  or  seen ;  that  in  the  universal  prosperity,  the 
merchants  in  the  colonies  were  rich,  the  yeomanry 
affluent,  the  humblest  able  to  gain  an  estate ;  that 
the  population  doubled  in  twenty-five  years,  building 
cities  in  the  wilderness,  and  interspersing  schools  and 
colleges  through  the  continent ;  that  the  country 
abounded  with  infallible  marks  of  opulence  and  free- 
dom ;  that  even  James  Otis  had  admitted  the  author- 
ity of  parliament  over  the  colonies,  and  had  proved 
the  necessity  and  duty  of  obedience  to  its  acts ;  that 
resistance  to  parliament  by  force  would  be  treason ; 
that  rebels  would  deservedly  be  cut  down  like  grass 
before  the  scythe  of  the  mower,  while  the  gibbet  and 
the  scaffold  would  make  away  with  those  whom  the 
sword  should  spare  ;  that  Great  Britain  was  resolved 
to  maintain  the  power  of  parliament,  and  was  able  to 
do  so ;  that  the  colonies  south  of  Pennsylvania  had 


232  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  barely  men  enough  to  govern  their  numerous  slav  es, 
and  defend  themselves  against  the  Indians  ;  that  the 
northern  colonies  had  no  military  stores,  nor  money 
to  procure  them,  nor  discipline,  nor  subordination, 
nor  generals  capable  of  opposing  officers  bred  to 
arms ;  that  five  thousand  British  troops  would  pre- 
vail against  fifty  thousand  Americans ;  that  the  British 
navy  on  the  first  day  of  war  would  be  master  of  their 
trade,  fisheries,  navigation,  and  maritime  towns ;  that 
the  Canadians  and  savages  would  prey  upon  the  back 
settlements,  so  that  a  regular  army  could  devastate 
the  land  like  a  whirlwind ;  that  the  colonies  never 
would  unite,  and  New  England,  'perhaps  even  Massa- 
chusetts, would  be  left  to  fall  alone;  that  even  in 
Massachusetts  thousands  among  the  men  of  property 
and  others,  would  flock  to  the  royal  standard,  while 
the  province  would  be  drenched  in  the  blood  of  rebels. 

The  appeal  of  Leonard  was  read  with  triumph  by 
the  tories.  But  John  Adams,  kindling  with  indigna- 
tion at  his  dastardly  menaces  and  mode  of  reasoning, 
entered  the  lists  as  the  champion  of  American  free- 
dom ;  employing  the  fruits  of  his  long  study  of  the 
British  law,  the  constitution,  and  of  natural  right, 
and  expressing  the  true  sentiments  of  New  England. 

"  My  friends :  Human  nature  itself  is  evermore 
an  advocate  for  liberty.  The  people  can  understand 
and  feel  the  difference  between  true  and  false,  right 
and  wrong,  virtue  and  vice.  To  the  sense  of  this 
difference  the  friends  of  mankind  appeal. 

"That  all  men  by  nature  are  equal ;  that  kings 
have  but  a  delegated  authority  which  the  people 
may  resume,  are  the  revolution  principles  of  1688, 
are  the  principles  of  Aristotle  and  Plato,  of  Livy  and 


THE    SPIRIT    OF    NEW   ENGLAND.  233 

Cicero,  of  Sydney,  Harrington,  and  Locke,  of  nature  CHAP. 
and  eternal  reason.  ^^ 

"  The  people  are  in  their  nature  so  gentle,  that 
there  never  was  a  government  in  which  thousands  of 
mistakes  were  not  overlooked.  Not  ingratitude  to 
their  rulers,  but  much  love  is  their  constant  fault. 
Popular  leaders  never  could  for  any  length  of  time 
persuade  a  large  people  that  they  were  wronged, 
unless  they  really  Vere  so.  They  have  acted  on  the 
defensive  from  first  to  last ;  are  still  struggling  at 
the  expense  of  their  ease,  health,  peace,  wealth,  and 
preferment,  and,  like  the  Prince  of  Orange,  resolve 
never  to  see  their  country  in  entire  subjection  to 
arbitrary  power,  but  rather  to  die  fighting  against  it 
in  the  last  ditch. 

"ISTor  can  the  people  be  losers  in  the  end.  Should 
they  be  unsuccessful,  they  can  but  be  slaves,  as  they 
would  have  been  had  they  not  resisted ;  if  they  die, 
death  is  better  than  slavery ;  if  they  succeed,  their 
gains  are  immense,  for  they  preserve  their  liberties. 
Without  the  resistance  of  the  Romans  to  Tarquin, 
would  the  Roman  orators,  poets,  and  historians,  the 
great  teachers  of  humanity,  the  delight  and  glory  of 
mankind,  ever  have  existed  ?  Did  not  the  Swiss  can- 
tons gain  by  resistance  to  Albert  and  Gessler  ?  Did 
not  the  Seven  United  Provinces  gain  by  resistance 
to  Philip,  Alva,  and  Granvelle  ?  Did  not  the  Eng- 
lish gain  by  resistance  to  John  when  Magna  Charta 
was  obtained  ?  by  resistance  to  Charles  the  First  ?  to 
James  the  Second  ? 

"  To  the  scheme  of  having  a  revenue  in  America 
by  authority  of  parliament,  the  active,  sagacious,  and 
very  able  Franklin,  the  eminent  philosopher,  the  dis- 

VOL.    VII.  20* 


234  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAR  tinguished  patriot,  in  the  administration  of  the  busy, 
intriguing,  enterprising  Shirley,  sent  an  answer  in 
writing>  which  exhausted  the  subject. 

"  If  the  parliament  of  Great  Britain  had  all  the 
natural  foundations  of  authority,  wisdom,  goodness, 
justice,  power,  would  not  an  unlimited  subjection  of 
three  millions  of  people  to  that  parliament  at  three 
thousand  miles  distance,  be  real  slavery  ?  But  when 
both  electors  and  elected  are  become  corrupt,  you 
would  be  the  most  abject  of  slaves  to  the  worst  of 
masters.  The  minister  and  his  advocates  call  resist- 
ance to  acts  of  parliament  treason  and  rebellion. 
But  the  people  are  not  to  be  intimidated  by  hard 
words;  they  know,  that  in  the  opinion  of  all  the 
colonies  parliament  has  no  authority  over  them  ex- 
cepting to  regulate  their  trade,  and  this  merely  by 
consent. 

"  All  America  is  united  in  sentiment.  When  a 
masterly  statesman,  to  whom  America  has  erected  a 
statue  in  her  heart  for  his  integrity,  fortitude,  and 
perseverance  in  her  cause,  invented  a  committee  of 
correspondence  in  Boston,  did  not  every  colony,  nay 
every  county,  city,  hundred,  and  town  upon  the 
whole  continent,  adopt  the  measure,  as  if  it  had 
been  a  revelation  from  above  ?  Look  over  the  re- 
solves of  the  colonies  for  the  past  year  ;  you  will  see, 
that  one  understanding  governs,  one  heart  animates 
the  whole. 

"The  congress  at  Philadelphia  have  assured  us, 
that  if  force  attempts  to  carry  the  late  innovating 
measures  against  us,  all  America  ought  to  support  us. 
Maryland  and  Delaware  have  taken  the  powers  of 
the  militia  into  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  estab- 


THE    SPIRIT   OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  235 

listed  it  by  their  own  authority  for  the  defence  of  CHAP. 
Massachusetts.  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  are  pre-  — v— - 
paring.  The  unanimity  in  congress  can  hardly  be 
paralleled.  The  mighty  questions  of  the  revolution 
of  1688  were  determined  in  the  convention  of  parlia- 
ment by  small*  majorities  of  two  or  three,  and  four  or 
five  only ;  the  almost  unanimity  in  your  assemblies 
and  especially  in  the  continental  congress,  are  provi- 
dential dispensations  in  our  favor,  the  clearest  demon- 
stration of  fhe  cordial,  firm,  radical,  and  indissoluble 
union  of  the  colonies. 

"  If  Great  Britain  were  united,  she  could  not  sub- 
due a  country  a  thousand  leagues  off.  How  many 
years,  how  many  millions,  did  it  take  to  conquer  the 
poor  province  of  Canada,  which  yet  would  never 
have  submitted  but  on  a  capitulation,  securing  re- 
ligion and  property  ?  But  Great  Britain  is  not 
united  against  us.  Millions  in  England  and  Scotland 
think  it  unrighteous,  impolitic,  and  ruinous  to  make 
war  upon  us ;  and  a  minister,  though  he  may  have  a 
marble  heart,  will  proceed  with  a  desponding  spirit. 
London  has  bound  her  members  under  their  hands 
to  assist  us ;  Bristol  has  chosen  two  known  friends 
of  America ;  many  of  the  most  virtuous  of  the  no- 
bility and  gentry  are  for  us,  and  among  them  a  St. 
Asaph,  a  Camden,  and  a  Chatham ;  the  best  bishop 
that  adorns  the  bench,  as  great  a  judge  as  the  nation 
can  boast,  and  the  greatest  statesman  it  ever  saw. 

"  I  would  ask,  by  what  law  the  parliament  has 
authority  over  America?  By  the  law  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  it  has  none ;  by  the  law  of  na- 
ture and  nations  it  has  none ;  by  the  common  law  of 
England  it  has  none ;  by  statute  law  it  has  none ;  for 


236  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  no  statute  for  this  purpose  was  made  before  the  set- 
— r—  tlement  of  the  colonies,  and  the  declaratory  act  of 
lF<Jb5.'  1^66  was   made  without  our  consent  by  a    parlia- 
ment which  had  no  authority  beyond  the  four  seas. 

"  The  subordination  of  Ireland  is  founded  on  con- 
quest and  consent.  But  America  never  was  con- 
quered by  Britain.  She  never  consented  to  be  a 
state,  dependent  upon  the  British  parliament.  Wha 
religious,  moral,  or  political  obligations,  then,  are  we 
under,  to  submit  to  parliament  as  supreme?  None 
at  all.  If  Great  Britain  will  resort  to  force,  all  Eu- 
rope will  pronounce  her  a  tyrant,  and  America  never 
will  submit  to  her,  be  the  danger  of  disobedience  as 
great  as  it  will. 

"  If  Great  Britain  has  protected  the  colonies,  all 
the  profits  of  our  trade  centred  in  her  lap.  If  she 
has  been  a  nursing  mother  to  us,  we  have,  as  nursed 
children  commonly  do,  been  very  fond  of  her,  and 
rewarded  her  all  along  tenfold  for  all  her  care. 

"  We  New  England  men  do  not  derive  our  laws 
from  parliament,  nor  from  common  law,  but  from 
the  law  of  nature  and  the  compact  made  with  the 
king  in  our  charters.  If  our  charters  could  be  for- 
feited, and  were  actually  forfeited,  the  only  conse- 
quence would  be,  that  the  king  would  have  no 
power  over  us  at  all.  The  connection  would  be 
broken  between  the  crown  and  the  natives  of  this 
country.  The  charter  of  London  in  an  arbitrary 
reign  was  decreed  forfeited ;  the  charter  of  Massachu- 
setts was  declared  forfeited  also.  But  no  American 
charter  will  ever  be  decreed  forfeited  again ;  or  if 
any  should,  the  decree  will  be  regarded  no  more 
than  a  vote  of  the  lower  house  of  the  Kobinhood 


THE    SPIRIT    OF    NEW   ENGLAND.  237 

society.      God  forbid  the  privileges  of  millions  of  cfxiP' 
Americans  should  depend  upon  the  discretion  of  a  — ^ 
lord  chancellor.     It  may  as  well  be  pretended  that    Feb. 
the  people  of  Great  Britain  can  forfeit  their  privi- 
leges, as  the  people  of  this  province.     If  the  contract 
of  state  is  broken,  the  people  and  king  of  England 
must  recur  to  nature.    It  is  the  same  in  this  province. 
We  shall  never  more  submit  to  decrees  in  chancery, 
or  acts  of  parliament,  annihilating  charters  or  '  abridg- 
ing English  liberties.' 

"  Should  the  nation  suffer  the  minister  to  perse- 
vere in  his  madness  and  send  fire  and  sword  against 
us,  we  have  men  enough  to  defend  ourselves.  The 
colonies  south  of  Pennsylvania  have  a  back  country, 
inhabited  by  a  hardy  robust  people,  many  of  whom 
are  emigrants  from  New  England,  and  habituated 
like  multitudes  of  New  England  men,  to  carry  their 
rifles  on  one  shoulder  to  defend  themselves  against 
the  savages,  while  they  carry  their  axes,  scythes, 
and  hoes  upon  the  other.  We  have  manufacturers 
of  fire-arms ;  powder  has  been  made  here  ;  nor  could 
the  whole  British  navy  prevent  the  importation  of 
arms  and  ammunition.  The  new-fangled  militia  will 
have  the  discipline  and  subordination  of  regular 
troops.  A  navy  might  burn  a  seaport  town,  but 
will  the  minister  be  nearer  his  mark  ?  At  present 
we  hold  the  power  of  the  Canadians  as  nothing; 
their  dispositions,  moreover,  are  not  unfriendly  to  us. 
The  savages  will  be  more  likely  to  be  our  friends 
than  our  enemies. 

"  The  two  characteristics  of  this  people,  religion 
and  humanity,  are  strongly  marked  in  all  their  pro- 
ceedings. We  are  not  exciting  a  rebellion.  Resist- 


238  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ance  by  arms  against  usurpation  and  lawless  violence, 

- — r^  is  not  rebellion  by  the  law  of  God  or  the  land.     Ee- 

*Feb '  sistance  to  lawful  authority  makes  rebellion.     Hamp- 

den,  Russell,  Sydney,  Holt,  Somers,  Tillotson,  were 

no  rebels.     If  an  act  of  parliament  is  null  and  void, 

it  is  lawful  to  resist  it. 

"This  people  under  great  trials  and  dangers,  have 
discovered  great  abilities  and  virtues,  and  that  noth- 
ing is  so  terrible  to  them  as  the  loss  of  their  liberties. 
They  act  for  America  and  posterity.  If  there  is  no 
possible  medium  between  absolute  independence  and 
subjection  to  the  authority  of  parliament,  all  North 
America  are  convinced  of  their  independence,  and  de- 
termined to  defend  it  at  all  hazards." 


CHAPTEE  XXII. 


HAS  NEW  ENGLAND  A  RIGHT  IN  THE  NEWFOUNDLAND  FISHERIES  ? 


FEBRUARY, 


the  tenth  of  February,  after  the  speaker  reported  CHAP. 
to  the  house  of  common  a  the  answer  to  their  address,  ^-^  —  ' 
Lord  North  presented  a  message  from  the  king,  ask- 
ing  the  required  "  augmentation  to  his  forces."  The 
minister,  who  still  clung  to  the  hope  of  reducing  Mas- 
sachusetts by  the  terrors  of  legislation,  next  proposed 
to  restrain  the  commerce  of  New  England  and  ex- 
clude its  fishermen  from  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland. 
The  best  shipbuilders  in  the  world  were  at  Boston, 
and  their  yards  had  been  closed  ;  the  New  England 
fishermen  were  now  to  be  restrained  from  a  toil  in 
which  they  excelled  the  world.  Thus  the  joint  right 
to  the  fisheries  was  made  a  part  of  the  great  Amer- 
ican struggle. 

"  God  and  nature,"  said  Johnston,  "  have  given 

that   fishery  to   New   England    and'  not    to   Old." 

Dunning  defended  the  right  of  the  Americans  to  fish 

>n  the  Banks.     "  If  rebellion  is  resistance  to  govern- 

ment," said  Sir  George  Savile,  "  it  must  sometimes  be 


240  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  justifiable.     May  not  a  people,  taxed  without  their 

—       _       9  m     9  9 

consent,  and  their  petitions  against  such  taxation  re- 
jected,  their  charters  taken  away  without  hearing,  and 
an  army  let  loose  upon  them  without  a  possibility  of 
obtaining  justice,  be  said  to  be  in  justifiable  rebel- 
lion ? "  But  the  ministerial  measure,  which,  by  keep- 
ing the  New  England,  fishermen  at  home  provoked 
discontent  and  provided  recruits  for  an  insurgent 
army,  was  carried  through  all  its  stages  by  great  m°- 
jorities.  Bishop  Newton,  in  the  lords,  reasoned  "  that 
rebellion  is  the  sin  of  witchcraft,  and  that  one  so  un- 
natural as  that  of  New  England,  could  be  ascribed  to 
nothing  less  than  diabolical  infatuation." 

The  minister  of  France  took  the  occasion  to  re- 
quest the  most  rigorous  and  precise  orders  to  all 
British  naval  officers  not  to  annoy  the  commerce  of 
the  French  colonies.  "  Such  orders,"  answered  Roch- 
ford,  "have  been  given;  and  we  have  the  greatest 
desire  to  live  with  you  on  the  best  understanding  and 
the  most  perfect  friendship."  A  letter  from  Lord 
Stormont,  the  British  ambassador  at  Paris,  was  also 
cited  in  the  house  of  lords  to  prove  that  France 
equally  wished  a  continuance  of  peace.  "  It  signifies 
nothing,"  said  Richmond ;  "  you  can  put  no  trust  in 
Gallic  faith,  except  so  long  as  it  shall,  be  their  in- 
terest to  keep  their  word."  With  this  Rochford,  the 
secretary  of  state,  readily  agreed ;  proving,  however, 
from  Raynal's  History  of  the  two  Indies,  that  it  was 
not  for  the  interest  of  France  that  the  English  colo- 
nies should  throw  off  the  yoke.  The  next  courier 
took  to  the  king  of  France  the  report,  that  neither 
the  opposition  nor  the  British  minister  put  faith  in 
his  sincerity  ;  and  the  inference  seemed  justified  that 
they  themselves  were  insincere. 


NEW    ENGLAND    AND    THE    FISHERIES.  241 

The  English  mind  was  in  the  process  of  change.  CHAP. 
The  destruction  of  the  tea  at  Boston  had  been  con-  — ^ 
demned  as  a  lawless  riot,  for  which  the  pride  of  the 
nation  demanded  an  indemnity.  But  the  proposal  to 
enter  upon  a  civil  war  with  a  view  to  enforce  for  parlia- 
ment a  power  of  taxation  which  it  could  never  render 
effective,  or  a  mutilation  of  a  charter  to  which  the 
public  was  indifferent,  was  received  by  merchants, 
tradesmen,  and  the  majority  of  the  people  with  ab- 
horrence. Lord  North  himself  leaned  far  towards 
the  Americans,  and  would  gladly  have  escaped  from 
his  embarrassments  by  concession  or  resigning  office ; 
but  George  the  Third,  who  liked  his  pliant  minister 
too  well  to  give  him  up,  yielded  just  enough  to  his 
advice  to  retain  him  in  his  place  and  yet  to  baffle  his 
design.  "I  am  a  friend  to  holding  out  the  olive 
branch,"  wrote  the  king,  "  yet  I  believe  that  when 
once  vigorous  measures  appear  to  be  the  only  means, 
the  colonies  will  submit.  I  shall  never  look  to  the 
right  or  to  the  left,  but  steadily  pursue  that  track 
which  my  conscience  dictates  to  be  the  right  one." 
The  preparations  for  war  were,  therefore,  to  proceed; 
but  he  consented,  that  the  commanders  of  the  naval 
and  military  forces  might  be  invested  with  commis- 
sions for  the  restoration  of  peace  according  to  a 
measure  to  be  proposed  by  Lord  North.  From 
Franklin,  whose  aid  in  the  scheme  was  earnestly  de- 
sired, the  minister  once  more  sought  to  learn  the 
least  amount  of  concession  that  could  be  accepted. 

No  sooner  was  Franklin  consulted,  than  he  ex- 
pressed his  approbation  of  the  proposed  commission, 
and  of  Lord  Howe  as  one  of  its  members ;  and  to 
smooth  the  way  to  conciliation,  he  offered  at  once  the 

VOL.    VII.  21 


242  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  payment  of  an  indemnity  to  the  India  company,  pro- 
^v—  vided  the  Massachusetts  acts  should  be  repealed. 
wWfth°ut  the  entire  repeal,"  said  he,  "the  language 
of  the  proposal  is,  try  on  your  fetters  first,  and  then 
if  you  don't  like  them,  we  will  consider."  On  the  eigh- 
teenth of  February,  Franklin,  by  appointment,  once 
more  saw  Lord  Howe.  "  Consent,"  said  he, <c  to  accoin 
pany  me,  and  co-operate  with  me  in  the  great  work 
of  reconciliation :  "  and  he  coupled  his  request  with 
a  promise  of  ample  appointments  and  subsequent  re- 
wards. "Accepting  favors,"  said  the  American, 
"  would  destroy  the  influence  you  propose  to  use ; 
but  let  me  see  the  propositions,  and  if  I  approve  of 
them,  I  will  hold  myself  ready  to  accompany  you  at 
an  hour's  warning."  His  opinions,  which  he  had 
purposely  reduced  to  writing  and  signed  with  his 
own  hand,  were  communicated  to  Lord  Howe,  and 
through  him  to  Lord  North,  as  his  last  words  ;  and 
they  were  these  :  "  The  Massachusetts  must  suffer  all 
the  hazards  and  mischiefs  of  war,  rather  than  admit 
the  alteration  of  their  charter  and  laws  by  parlia- 
ment. They  that  can  give  up  essential  liberty  to 
obtain  a  little  temporary  safety,  deserve  neither 
liberty  nor  safety." 

The  minister  was  disheartened ;  he  stood  almost 
alone,  helpless  for  the  want  of  a  vigorous  will,  dread- 
ing the  conflict  with  America,  yet  feebly  and  vainly 
resisting  the  impetuosity  of  his  colleagues.  Franklin 
was  informed  on  the  twentieth,  that  his  principles  and 
those  of  parliament  were  as  yet  too  wide  from  each 
other  for  discussion ;  and  on  the  same  day,  Lord 
North,  armed  with  the  king's  consent  in  writing, 
proposed  in  the  house  of  commons  a  plan  of  con- 


NEW  ENGLAND    AND    THE    FISHERIES.  243 

ciliation.  "  Now,"  said  Vergennes,  as  lie  heard  of  it,  CHAP. 
"  now  more  than  ever  is  the  time  for  us  to  keep  our  — , — 
eyes  wide  open."  lj££' 

The  proposal  was  formed  on  the  principle,  that 
parliament,  if  the  colonies  would  tax  themselves  to  its 
satisfaction,  would  impose  on  them  no  duties  except 
for  the  regulation  of  commerce.  A  wild  opposition 
ensued.  Lord  North  could  not  quell  the  storm,  and 
for  two  hours  he  seemed  in,  a  considerable  minority, 
more  from  the  knowledge  of  his  disposition  to  re- 
lent, than  for  the  substance  of  his  measure.  "The 
plan  should  have  been  signed  by  John  Hancock  and 
Otis,"  said  Rigby,  in  his  inconsiderate  zeal  to  con- 
demn the  minister.  Welbore  Ellis,  and  others,  par- 
ticularly young  Acland*  angry  at  his  manifest  repug- 
nance to  cruelty,  declared  against  him  loudly  and 
roughly.  "Whether  any  colony  will  come  in  on  these 
terms  I  know  not,"  said  Lord  North ;  "  but  it  is  just 
and  humane  to  give  them  the  option.  If  one  con- 
sents, a  link  of  the  great  chain  is  broken.  If  not,  it 
will  convince  men  of  justice  and  humanity  at  home, 
that  in  America  they  mean  to  throw  off  all  de- 
pendence." Jenkinson  reminded  the  house,  that  Lord 
North  stood  on  ground  chosen  by  Grenville ;  but 
the  Bedford  party  none  the  less  threatened  to  vote 
against  the  minister,  till  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  the  well 
known  friend  of  the  king,  brought  to  his  aid  the 
royal  influence,  and  secured  for  the  motion  a  large 
majority. 

Lord  North  must  have  fallen,  but  for  the  active 
interposition  of  the  king.  Yet  the  conciliation  which 
he  offered,  could  not  lead  to  an  agreement,  for  no 
confidence  could  be  placed  in  its  author,  who  was  the 


244  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  feeble  head  of  an  adverse  ministry.  "  Chatham," 
- — <~"  wrote  the  French  minister,  "  can  say  like  Scanderbeg, 
'rib!'  "I  &ive  my  scimitar,  but  not  the  arm  to  wield  it." 
The  two  systems,  moreover,  were  essentially  in  con- 
trast with  each  other.  Chatham  denied  the  right  of 
parliament  to  tax  ;  North  asserted  it ;  Chatham  asked 
free  grants  from  deliberative  assemblies  in  the  full 
exercise  of  the  right  to  judge  of  their  own  ability  to 
give ;  North  put  chains  on  the  colonies,  and  invited 
them  one  by  one  to  make  a  bid,  each  for  its  separate 
ransom  ;  Chatham  proposed  to  repeal  the  Massachu- 
setts acts ;  North  was  silent  about  them.  Yet  even 
this  semblance  of  humanity  was  grudged.  To  re- 
cover his  lost  ground  with  the  extreme  supporters  of 
authority,  North  was  obliged  to  join  with  Suffolk 
and  Rochford  in  publishing  "  a  paper  declaring  his 
intention  to  make  no  concessions." 

The  army  in  Boston  was  to  be  raised  to  ten 
thousand  men,  and  the  general  to  be  superseded  on 
account  of  his  incapacity  to  direct  such  a  force,  "  If 
fifty  thousand  men  and  twenty  millions  of  money," 
said  David  Hume,  "  were  intrusted  to  such  a  luke- 
warm coward  as  Gage,  they  never  could  produce  any 
effect."  Amherst  declined  the  service,  unless  the- 
army  should  be  raised  to  twenty  thousand  men  ;  the 
appointment  of  William  Howe  was  therefore  made 
public.  He  possessed  no  one  quality  of  a  great  gen- 
eral, and  he  was  selected  for  his  name.  On  receiving 
the  offer  of.  the  command,  "  Is  it  a  proposition  ? "  he 
asked,  "  or  an  order  from  the  king  ? "  and  when  told  an 
order,  he  replied,  it  was  his  duty  to  obey  it.  "  You 
should  have  refused  to  go  against  this  people,"  cried 
the  voters  of  Nottingham,  with  whom  he  had  broken 


NEW    ENGLAND    AND    THE    FISHERIES.  245 

faith.     "Your  brother  died  there  in  the  cause  of  CHAP 

.A.A.11. 

freedom ;  they  have  shown  their  gratitude  to  your 
name  and  family  by  erecting  a  monument  to  him." 
"  If  you  go,"  said  many  of  them,  "  we  hope  you  may 
fall."  "  We  cannot  wish  success  to  the  undertaking," 
said  many  more.  "  My  going  thither,"  wrote  Howe 
in  apology,  "  is  not  my  seeking.  I  was  ordered,  and 
could  not  refuse.  Private  feelings  ought  to  give  way 
to  the  service  of  the  public.  There  are  many  loyal 
and  peaceable  subjects  in  America ;  the  insurgents 
are  very  few  in  comparison.  When  they  find  they 
are  not  supported  in  their  frantic  ideas  by  the  more 
moderate,  they  will,  from  fear  of  punishment,  subside 
to  the  laws.  This  country  must  now  fix  the  founda- 
tion of  its  stability  with  America,  by  procuring  a 
lasting  obedience." 

At  the  same  time,  Lord  Howe,  the  admiral,  was 
announced  as  commander  of  the  naval  forces  and 
pacificator  ;  for  it  was  pretended  that  the  olive 
branch  and  the  sword  were  to  be  sent  together. 

Of  the  two  major  generals  who  attended  Howe, 
the  first  in  rank  was  Henry  Clinton,  son  of  a 
former  governor  in  New  York,  related  to  the  fami- 
lies of  Newcastle  and  Bedford,  and  connected  by 
party  with  the  ministry.  The  other  was  John  Bur- 
goyne.  A  bastard  son  of  one  peer,  he  had  made  a 
runaway  match  with  the  daughter  of  another.  In 
the  last  war  he  served  in  Portugal  with  spirit,  and 
was  brave  even  to  rashness.  His  talent  for  descrip- 
tion made  him  respectable  as  a  man  of  letters  ;  as  a 
dramatic  writer,  his  place  is  not  among  the  worst. 
He  was  also  a  ready  speaker  in  the  house  of  com- 
mons, inclining  to  the  liberal  side  in  politics;  yet 

VOL     VII.  21* 


246  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

(xxn?  ready  to  risk  life  and  political  principles  for  the  dar- 
^^  ling  object  of  effacing  the  shame  of  his  birth,  by  win- 
Feb.    ning  military  glory  with  rank  and  fortune. 

His  service  in  America  was  preceded  by  a  public 
parade  of  his  principles.  "I  am  confident,"  said 
the  new  devotee  in  the  house  of  commons,  "  there  is 
not  an  officer  or  soldier  in  the  king's  service  who  does 
not  think  the  parliamentary  right  of  Great  Britain 
a  cause  to  fight  for,  to  bleed  and  die  for."  The  asser- 
tion was  extravagant ;  many  of  the  best  would  not 
willingly  bear  arms  against  their  kindred  in  America. 
In  reply  to  Burgoyne,  Henry  Temple  Luttrell, 
whom  curiosity  once  led  to  travel  many  hundreds  of 
miles  along  the  flourishing  and  hospitable  provinces 
of  the  continent,  bore  testimony  to  their  temperance, 
urbanity,  and  spirit,  and  predicted  that,  if  set  to  the 
proof,  they  would  evince  the  magnanimity  of  repub- 
lican Rome.  He  saw  in  the  aspect  of  infant  Amer- 
ica, features  which  at  maturer  years  denoted  a  most 
colossal  force.  "  Switzerland  and  the  Netherlands," 
he  reminded  the  house,  "  demonstrate  what  extraor- 
dinary obstacles  a  small  band  of  insurgents  may  sur- 
mount in  the  cause  of  liberty." 

While  providing  for  a  re  enforcement  to  its  army, 
England  enjoined  the  strictest  watchfulness  ,on  its 
consuls  and  agents  in  every  part  of  Europe,  to  inter- 
cept all  munitions  of  war  destined  for  the  colonies. 
To  check  the  formation  of  magazines  on  the  Dutch 
island  of  St.  Eustatius,  which  was  the  resort  of  New 
England  mariners,  the  British  envoy,  with  dictatorial 
menaces,  required  the  States  General  of  Holland  to 
forbid  their  subjects  from  so  much  as  transporting 
military  stores  to  the  West  Indies,  beyond  the  abso- 


NEW    ENGLAND    AND    THE  FISHERIES.  247 

lute   wants  of  their  own  colonies.     Of  the  French  CHAP. 
government,  preventive  measures  were  requested  in  - 
the  most  courteous  words. 

Meantime,  an  English  vessel  had  set  sail  imme- 
diately to  convey  to  the  colonies  news  of  Lord 
North's  proposal,  in  the  confident  belief  that,  under 
the  mediation  of  a  numerous  army,  provinces  which 
neither  had  the  materials  for  war,  nor  the  means  of 
obtaining  them,  would  be  divided  by  the  mere  hint 
of  giving  up  the  point  of  taxation.  "  The  plan,"  said 
Chatham,  "  will  be  spurned ;  and  every  thing  but 
justice  and  reason,  prove  vain  to  men  like  the  Amer- 
icans." "  It  is  impossible,"  said  Fox,  "  to  use  the 
same  resolution  to  make  the  Americans  believe  their 
government  will  give  up  the  right  of  taxing,  and  the 
mother  country  that  it  will  be  maintained." 

Franklin  sent  advice  to  Massachusetts  by  no 
means  to  begin  war  without  the  advice  of  the  con- 
tinental congress,  unless  on  a  sudden  emergency; 
"  but  New  England  alone,"  said  he,  "  can  hold  out  for 
ages  against  this  country,  and  if  they  are  firm  and 
united,  in  seven  years  will  win  the  day."  "  By  wis- 
dom and  courage,  the  colonies  will  find  friends  every- 
where ; "  thus  he  wrote  to  James  Bowdoin  of  Boston, 
as  if  predicting  a  French  alliance.  "  The  eyes  of  all 
Christendom  are  now  upon  us,  and  our  honor  as  a 
people  is  become  a  matter  of  the  utmost  conse- 
quence. If  we  tamely  give  up  our  rights  in  this 
contest,  a  century  to  come  will  not  restore  us,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  world ;  we  shall  be  stamped  with  the 
character  of  dastards,  poltroons,  and  fools;  and  be 
despised  and  trampled  upon,  not  by  this  haughty, 
insolent  nation  only,  but  by  all  mankind.  Present 


248  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,   inconveniences  are,  therefore,  to  be  borne  with  forti- 

— ^  tude,  and  better  times  expected." 

^eb5  "Every  negotiation  which  shall  proceed  from  the 
present  administration,"  wrote  Gamier  to  Vergennes, 
"  will  be  without  success  in  the  colonies.  Will  the 
king  of  England  lose  America  rather  than  change  his 
ministry  ?  Time  must  solve  the  problem ;  if  I  am  well 
informed,  the  submission  of  the  Americans  is  not  to 
be  expected." 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  BOSTON  MASSACRE. 
FEBKUARY — MARCH,  17*75. 

THE  French  minister  judged  rightly;    the  English 
government  had  less  discernment  and  was  deceived  " — Y 
by  men  who  had  undertaken  to  secure  New  York  to    Feb.' 
the  crown,  if  their  intrigues  could  be  supported  by  a 
small  military  force. 

But  the  friends  of  the  British  system  in  that 
colony  were  not  numerous,  and  were  found  only  on 
the  surface.  The  Dutch  Americans  formed  the  basis 
of  the  population,  and  were  in  a  special  manner  ani- 
mated by  the  glorious  example  of  their  fathers,  who 
had  proved  to  the  world  that  a  small  people  under 
great  discouragements  can  found  a  republic.  The 
story  of  their  strife  with  Spain,  their  successful 
daring,  their  heroism  during  their  long  war  for  free- 
dom, was  repeated  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  and 
the  Mohawk.  It  was  remembered,  too,  that  England 
herself  owed  her  great  revolution,  the  renovation  of 
her  own  political  system,  to  Holland.  How  hard,  then, 
that  the  superior  power  which  had  been  the  fruit  of 


250  AMERICAN  .INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  that  restoration,  should  be  employed  to  impair  the 
— r~-  privileges  of  colonists  of  Dutch  descent!  By  tem- 
perament  moderate  but  inflexible,  little  noticed  by 
the  government,  they  kept  themselves  noiselessly  in 
reserve  ;  but  their  patriotism  was  inflamed  and  guided 
by  the  dearest  recollections  of  their  nationality 
Many  of  the  Anglo-Americans  of  New  York  were 
from  New  England,  whose  excitement  they  shared ; 
and  the  mechanics  of  the  city  were  almost  to  a  man 
enthusiasts  for  decisive  measures.  The  landed  aris- 
tocracy was  divided ;  but  the  Dutch  and  the  Pres- 
byterians, especially  Schuyler  of  Albany,  and  the 
aged  Livingston  of  Rhinebeck,  never  hesitated  to 
risk  their  vast  estates  in  the  cause  of  inherited  free- 
dom. The  latter  had  once  thought  of  emigrating  to 
Switzerland,  if  he  could  nowhere  else  escape  oppres- 
sion. In  no  colony  did  English  dominion  find  less 
of  the  sympathy  of  the  people  than  in  New  York. 

In  Virginia  the  Blue  Eidge  answered  British 
menaces  with  a  mountain  tone  of  defiance.  "  We 
cannot  part  with  liberty  but  with  our  lives,"  said  the 
inhabitants  of  Botetourt.  "  Our  duty  to  God,  our 
country,  ourselves,  and  our  posterity,  all  forbid  it. 
"We  stand  prepared  for  every  contingency."  The 
dwellers  on  the  waters  of  the  Shenandoah,  meeting 
at  Staunton,  commended  the  Virginia  delegates  to 
the  applause  of  succeeding  ages,  their  example  to  the 
hearts  of  every  Virginian  and  every  American.  "  For 
my  part,"  said  Adam  Stephen,  "  before  I  would  submit 
my  life,  liberty,  and  property  to  the  arbitrary  dis- 
posal of  a  venal  aristocracy,  I  would  sit  myself  down 
with  a  few  friends  upon  some  rich  and  healthy  spot, 
six  hundred  miles  to  the  westward,  and  there  form  a 


ANNIVERSARY    OF   THE    BOSTON    MASSACRE.  251 

settlement  which  in  a  short  time  would  command  CHAP. 
attention  and  respect." 

The  valleys  of  Kentucky  laughed  as  they  heard 
the  distant  tread  of  clustering  troops  of  adventurers, 
who,  under  a  grant  from  the  Cherokees,  already  pie- 
parecL  to  take  possession  of  the  meadows  and  undu- 
lating table  land  that  nature  has  clothed  with  its 
richest  grasses.  Their  views  extended  to  planting 
companies  of  honest  farmers,  and  erecting  iron  works, 
a  salt  manufactory,  grist-mills,  and  saw-mills ;  and  the 
culture  of  the  rich  region  was  to  be  fostered  by  pre- 
miums for  the  heaviest  crop  of  corn,  and  for  the  emi- 
grant who  should  drive  out  the  greatest  number  of 
sheep.  The  men  who  are  now  to  occupy  "  that  most 
desirable  territory,"  will  never  turn  back,  but,  as  we 
shall  see,  will  carry  American  independence  to  the 
Wabash,  the  Detroit,  and  the  Mississippi. 

At  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the  association 
was  punctually  enforced.  A  ship  load  of  near  three 
hundred  slaves  was  sent  out  of  the  colony  by  the 
consignee ;  even  household  furniture  and  horses, 
though  they  had  been  in  use  in  England,  could  not 
be  landed ;  and  on  the  twenty-fifth,  the  whole  cargo 
of  "  the  Charming  Sally  "  was  thrown  into  Hog  Island 
Creek. 

The  winter  at  Boston  was  the  mildest  ever  known ; 
and  in  this  "  the  gracious  interposition  of  heaven  was 
recognised."  All  the  towns  in  Massachusetts,  nearly 
all  in  New  England,  and  all  the  colonies  ministered 
to  the  wants  of  Boston.  Some  relief  came  even  from 
England.  "  Call  me  an  enthusiast,"  said  Samuel  Ad- 
ams ;  "  this  union  among  the  colonies  and  warmth  of 
affection  can  be  attributed  to  nothing  less  than  the 


252  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  agency  of  the  Supreme  Being.     If  we  believe  that  he 
^v^  superintends  and  directs  the  affairs  of  empires,  we 
lFetf    nave  reason  to  expect  the  restoration  and  establish- 
ment of  the  public  liberties." 

On  Sunday,  the  twenty-sixth  of  February,  two  or 
three  hundred  soldiers,  under  the  command  of.  Leslie, 
sailed  from  Castle  William,  landed  clandestinely  at 
Marblehead,  and  hurried  to  Salem  in  quest  of  military 
stores.  Not  finding  them  there,  the  officer  marched 
towards  Danvers ;  but  at  the  river,  he  found  the 
bridge  drawn  up,  and  was  kept  waiting  for  an  hour 
and  a  half,  whilst  the  stores,  insignificant  in  amount, 
were  removed  to  a  place  of  safety.  Then  having 
pledged  his  honor  not  to  advance  more  than  thirty 
yards  on  the  other  side,  he  was  allowed  to  march  his 
troops  across  the  bridge.  The  alarm  spread  through 
the  neighborhood ;  but  Leslie  hastily  retraced  his 
steps,  and  re-embarked  at  Marblehead. 
Mar.  At  this  time  the  British  ministry  received  news 
of  the  vote  in  the  New  York  assembly,  refusing  to 
•  consider  the  resolutions  of  congress.  The  confidence 
of  the  king  reached  its  climax ;  and  he  spared  no 
pains  to  win  the  colony.  In  an  ostensible  letter  from 
the  secretary  of  state,  New  York  was  praised  for  its 
attempts  towards  a  reconciliation  with  the  mother 
country  ;  in  a  private  letter,  Dartmouth  enjoined 
upon  Golden  to  exert  his  address  to  facilitate  the 
acceptance  of  Lord  North's  conciliatory  resolution. 
The  same  directions  were  sent  to  the  governors  of 
every  colony  except  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island, 
and  they  were  enjoined  from  the  king  to  make 
proper  explanations  to  those  whose  situations  and 
connections  were  to  give  facility  to  the  measure. 


ANNIVERSARY    OF    THE    BOSTON    MASSACRE.  253 

How  complete  was  the  general  confidence,  that  CHAP. 

XXIII. 

the  great  majorities  in  parliament  would  overawe  the  -^^ 
colonies,  appeared  on  Monday,  the  sixth  of  March,  l^' 
when  the  bill  depriving  New  England  of  her  fisheries  6. 
was  to  be  engrossed.  Even  Lord  Howe  advocated  it 
as  the  means  of  bringing  the  disobedient  provinces 
to  a  sense  of  their  duty,  without  involving  the  em- 
pire in  a  civil  war.  "Now,"  replied  Fox,  "as  by 
this  act  all  means  of  acquiring  a  livelihood,  or  of 
receiving  provisions,  is  cut  off,  no  alternative  is  left, 
but  -starving  or  rebellion.  If  the  act  should  not  pro- 
duce universal  acquiescence,  I  defy  any  body  to  de- 
fend the  policy  of  it.  Yet  America  will  not  submit. 
New  York  only  differs  in  the  modes."  "  The  act," 
said  Dundas,  the  solicitor  general  of  Scotland,  "is 
just,  because  provoked  by  the  most  criminal  disobe- 
dience ;  is  merciful,  because  that  disobedience  would 
have  justified  the  severest  military  execution.  As  to 
the  famine,  which  is  so  pathetically  lamented,  I  am 
afraid  it  will  not  be  produced  by  this  act.  "When 
it  is  said,  no  alternative  is  left  to  them  but  to  starve 
or  rebel,  this  is  not  the  fact,  for  there  is  another  way, 
to  submit."  The  king,  on  receiving  an  account  of 
"  the  languor  of  opposition"  during  the  debate,  wrote 
to  Lord  North :  "  I  am  convinced  the  line  adopted  in 
American  affairs  will  be  crowned  with  success." 

These  words  fell  from  George  the  Third  on  the 
day  on  which  Boston  commemorated  the  "mas- 
sacre "  of  its  citizens.  The  orator  was  Joseph  "War- 
ren, who  understood  the  delusion  of  the  king,  and 
resolved  to  prove  that  "the  Americans  would  make 
the  last  appeal,  rather  than  submit  to  the  yoke  pre- 
pared for  their  necks;  that  their  unexampled  pa- 

VOL.    TIL  22 


254  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  tience  had  no  alloy  of  cowardice."     The  commemora- 

XXIII  . 

—  ,  —  '.  tion  was  a  public  affront  to  Gage  both  as  general  of 


the  army,  and  as  governor  of  the  province;  for  the 
6.  subject  of  the  oration  was  the  baleful  effects  of  stand- 
ing armies  in  time  of  peace  ;  and  it  was  to  be  delivered 
to  the  town  in  a  town  meeting,  contrary  to  an  act  of 
parliament  which  he  came  to  Boston  to  enforce.  In 
the  crowd  which  thronged  to  the  Old  South  Meeting- 
house, appeared  about  forty  British  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy  ;  these,  Samuel  Adams,  the  moderator,  re- 
ceived with  studied  courtesy,  placing  them  all  near 
the  orator,  some  of  them  on  the  platform  above  the 
pulpit  stairs.  There  they  sat  conspicuously,  and 
listened  to  a  vivid  picture  of  the  night  of  the  mas- 
sacre, after  which  Warren  proceeded  : 

"  Our  streets  are  again  filled  with  armed  men,  our 
harbor  is  crowded  with  ships  of  war  ;  but  these  can- 
not intimidate  us  ;  our  liberty  must  be  preserved  ;  it  is 
far  dearer  than  life  ;  we  hold  it  even  dear  as  our  al- 
legiance ;  we  cannot  suffer  even  Britons  to  ravish  it 
from  us.  Should  America  be  brought  into  vassalage, 
Britain  must  lose  her  freedom  also;  her  liberty,  as 
well  as  ours,  will  eventually  be  preserved  by  the  vir- 
tue of  America.  The  attempt  of  parliament  to  raise 
a  revenue  from  America,  and  our  denial  of  their  right 
to  do  it,  have  excited  an  almost  universal  inquiry 
into  the  rights  of  British  subjects  and  of  mankind. 
The  malice  of  the  Boston  port-bill  has  been  defeated 
in  a  very  considerable  degree,  by  benefactions  in  this 
and  our  sister  colonies  ;  and  the  sympathetic  feelings 
for  a  brother  in  distress,  and  the  grateful  emotions 
of  him  who  finds  relief,  must  forever  endear  each  to 
the  other,  and  form  those  indissoluble  bonds  of 


ANNIVERSARY    OF    THE    BOSTON    MASSACRE.  255 

friendship  and  affection  on  which  the  preservation  C]|AP. 
of  our  rights  so  evidently  depends.  The  mutilation 
of  our  charter  has  made  every  other  colony  jealous 
for  its  own.  Even  the  sending  troops  to  put  these 
acts  in  execution,  is  not  without  advantages  to  us. 
The  exactness  and  beauty  of  their  discipline  inspire 
our  youth  with  ardor  in  the  pursuit  of  military 
knowlege.  Charles  the  Invincible  taught  Peter  the 
Great  the  art  of  war  ;  the  battle  of  Pultowa  con- 
vinced Charles  of  the  proficiency  Peter  had  made. 

fc  Our  country  is  in  danger.  Our  enemies  are 
numerous  and  powerful ;  but  we  have  many  friends, 
determining  to  be  free,  and  Heaven  and  earth  will 
aid  the  resolution.  You  are  to  decide  the  important 
question,  on  which  rests  the  happiness  and  liberty  of 
millions  yet  unborn.  Act  worthy  of  yourselves. 
The  faltering  tongue  of  hoary  age  calls  on  you  to 
support  your  country.  The  lisping  infant  raises  its 
suppliant  hands,  imploring  defence  against  the  mon- 
ster slavery.  Your  fathers  look  from  their  celestial 
seats  with  smiling  approbation  on  their  sons,  who 
boldly  stand  forth  in  the  cause  of  virtue. 

"  My  fellow-citizens,  I  know  you  want  not  zeal  or 
fortitude.  You  will  maintain  your  rights  or  perish 
in.  the  generous  struggle.  However  difficult  the 
combat,  you  will  never  decline  it,  when  freedom  is 
the  prize.  An  independence  of  Great  Britain  is  not 
our  aim.  No,  our  wish  is,  that  Britain  and  the  colo- 
nies may,  like  the  oak  and  the  ivy,  grow  and  increase 
together.  But  if  these  pacific  measures  are  ineffectual, 
and  it  appears  that  the  only  way  to  safety  is  through 
fields  of  blood,  I  know  you  will  not  turn  your  faces 
from  your  foes,  but  will  undauntedly  press  forward, 
until  tyranny  is  trodden  under  foot." 


256  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.         The  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  who  heard  the 

XXTTT 

— ,-J  oration  gave  no  offence  during  its  delivery ;  but  at 
17  75  •  the  motion  for  "  appointing  an  orator  for  the  ensuing 
6,      year  to  commemorate  the  horrid  massacre,"  they  be- 
gan to  hiss.     The  assembly  became  greatly  exaspe- 
rated, and  threatened  vengeance  for  the  insult ;  but 
Adams,  with  imperturbable  calmness,  soon  restored 
order;  the  vote  was  taken,  and  the  business  of  the 
meeting  was  regularly  concluded. 

The  event  of  that  day  maddened  the  army,  and 
both  officers  and  soldiers  longed  for  revenge.  An 
honest  countryman  from  Billerica  inquiring  for  a  fire- 
lock, bought  an  old  one  of  a  private ;  but  as  soon  as 
he  had  paid  the  full  price,  he  was  seized  by  half  a 
dozen  of  a  company  for  having  violated  an  act  of  par- 
liament against  trading  with  soldiers,  and  confined 
during  the  night  in  the  guard-room.  The  next  day  he 
was  labelled  on  his  back,  "  American  liberty,  or  a 
specimen  of  democracy,"  was  tarred  and  feathered, 
and  carted  through  the  principal  streets  of  the  town, 
accompanied  by  all  the  drums  and  fifes  of  the  forty- 
seventh,  playing  Yankee  Doodle,  by  a  guard  of  twenty 
men  with  fixed  bayonets,  and  by  a  mob  of  officers, 
among  whom  was  Lieutenant  Colonel  Nesbit  himself. 
rt  See  what  indignities  we  suffer,  rather  than  pre- 
cipitate a  crisis,"  wrote  Samuel  Adams  to  Virginia. 
The  soldiers  seemed  encouraged  to  provoke  the  peo- 
ple, that  they  might  have  some  color  for  beginning 
hostilities. 


CHAPTEK    XXIV. 

PUBLIC  OPINION  IN  ENGLAND. 

MARCH,  1775. 
DURING  this  angry  strife  between  the  citizens  and  sol-  CHAP. 

*""" 

diers  at  Boston,  Lord  Howe  at  London  broke  off  ne- 
gotiations  with  Franklin,  and  the  ministry  used  the 
pen  of  Samuel  Johnson,  to  inflame  the  public  mind. 
Johnson  was  a  poor  man's  son,  and  had  himself  tasted 
the  bitter  cup  of  extreme  indigence.  His  father  left 
no  more  than  twenty  pounds.  To  bury  his  mother 
and  pay  her  little  debts,  he  had  composed  Kasselas. 
For  years  he  had  gained  a  precarious  support  as  an 
author.  He  had  paced  the  streets  of  London  all 
night  long,  from  not  having  where  to  lay  his  head ; 
he  had  escaped  a  prison  for  a  trifle  he  owed  by  beg- 
ging an  alms  of  Kichardson,  had  broken  his  bread 
with  poverty,  and  had  even  known  what  it  is  from 
sheer  want  to  go  without  a  dinner,  preserving  through 
all  his  sufferings  the  unbending  spirit  of  rugged  in- 
dependence. His  name  was  venerable  wherever  the 
English  was  spoken,  by  his  full  display  of  that  lan- 
guage in  a  dictionary,  written  amidst  inconvenience 
and  distraction,  in  sickness,  sorrow,  and  solitude,  with 
little  assistance  of  the  learned  and  no  patronage  of 
the  great.  When  better  days  came,  he  loved  the 
poor  as  few  else  love  them;  and  he  nursed  in  his 
22* 


258  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  house  whole  nests  of  the  lame,  the  blind,  the  sick. 

XXTV 

— ~  and  the  sorrowful.     He  could  breathe  "  a  sigh  of  ten- 

1775 

Mar.'  derness"  from  sympathy  with  a  friend,  and  repaid 
with  a  sincere  sentiment  of  gratitude  the  "  kindness 
which  soothed  twenty  years  of  a  life  radically 
wretched."  A  man  who  was  so  sensitive  by  nature, 
who  had  thus  sturdily  battled  with  social  evils,  and 
was  so  keenly  touched  by  the  wretchedness  of  the 
down-trodden,  deserved  to  have  been  able  to  feel  the 
wrongs  of  a  kindred  people  ;  but  he  refused  to  do 
so.  Having,  from  antipathy  to  the  Whig  party  then 
in  power,  defined  the  word  pension  as  "  pay  given  to 
a  state  hireling  for  treason  to  his  country,"  he  was 
himself  become  a  pensioner  ;  and  at  the  age  of  three 
score  and  six,  with  small  hire,  like  a  bravo  who  loves 
his  trade,  he  set  about  the  task  of  his  work-masters, 
which  was  congenial  to  his  obstinate  temper,  his  en- 
ergetic hate  of  the  Puritans,  and  his  own  life-long 
political  creed.  In  a  tract,  which  he  called  "  Taxation 
no  Tyranny,"  he  echoed  to  the  crowd  the  haughty 
rancor,  which  passed  down  from  the  king  and  his 
court,  to  his  council,  to  the  ministers,  to  the  aristoc- 
racy, their  parasites  and  followers,  with  nothing  re- 
markable in  his  party  zeal,  but  the  intensity  of  its 
bitterness ;  or  in  his  manner,  but  its  unparalleled 
insolence ;  or  in  his  argument,  but  its  grotesque  ex- 
travagance. 

The  Bostonians  had  declared  to  the  general  con- 
gress their  willingness  to  resign  their  opulent  town, 
and  wander  into  the  country  as  exiles.  "  Alas !  "  re- 
torted Johnson,  "  the  heroes  of  Boston  will  only  leave 
good  houses  to  wiser  men."  To  the  complaints  of 
their  liability  to  be  carried  out  of  their  country  for 
trial,  he  answered,  "  we  advise  them  not  to  offend." 


PUBLIC    OPINION   IN   ENGLAND.  259 

When  it  was  urged,  that  they  were  condemned  un-  CHAP. 
heard,  he  asserted,  "  there  is  no  need  of  a  trial ;  no  ^^ 
man  desires  to  hear  that  which  he  has  already  seen."  Mar ' 

Franklin  had  remained  in  Great  Britain  for  no 
reason  but  to  promote  conciliation ;  and  with  an  im- 
placable malice  which  was  set  off  by  a  ponderous 
effort  at  mirth,  Johnson  pointed  at  him  as  the  "  mas- 
ter of  mischief,  teaching  congress  to  put  in  motion 
the  engine  of  political  electricity,  and  to  give  the 
great  stroke  by  the  name  of  Boston." 

Did  the  Americans  claim  a  right  of  resistance, 
"Audacious  defiance  !"  cried  Johnson ;  "acrimonious 
malignity !  The  indignation  of  the  English  is  like  that 
of  the  Scythians,  who  returning  from  war,  found  them- 
selves excluded  from  their  own  houses  by  their  slaves." 

Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  had  shown  impatience 
of  oppression.  "  How  is  it,"  asked  Johnson,  "  that  we 
hear  the  loudest  yelps  for  liberty  among  the  drivers 
of  negroes  ?  The  slaves  should  be  set  free ;  they  may 
be  more  grateful  and  honest  than  their  masters." 

Lord  North  inclined  to  mercy:  « Nothing,"  said  the 
moralist,  "  can  be  more  noxious  to  society  than  clem- 
ency which  exacts  no  forfeiture; "  and  he  proposed  to 
arm  the  savage  Indians,  turn  out  the  British  soldiers 
on  free  quarters  among  the  Americans,  remodel  all 
their  charters,  and  take  away  their  political  privileges. 

Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania  had  insisted,  that  the 
Americans  complained  only  of  innovations.  "We 
do  not  put  a  calf  into  the  plough,"  said  Johnson; 
"  we  wait  till  he  is  an  ox."  This,  however,  the  minis- 
try bade  him  erase,  not  for  its  ribaldry,  but  as  un- 
willing to  concede  that  the  calf  had  been  spared ; 
and  Johnson  obeyed,  comparing  himself  to  a  me- 
chanic for  whom  «  the  employer  is  to  decide."  Was 


260  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  he  told  that  the  Americans  were  increasing;  in  num- 

XXIV 

'  bers,  wealth,  and  love  of  freedom ;  "  This  talk,"  said 
'  ne>  "that  they  multiply  with  the  fecundity  of  their 
own  rattlesnakes,  disposes  men  accustomed  to  think 
themselves  masters,  to  hasten  the  experiment  of  bind- 
ing obstinacy  before  it  is  become  yet  more  obdu- 
rate." He  mocked  at  the  rule  of  progression,  which 
showed  that  America  must  one  day  exceed  Europe 
in  population.  "Then,"  said  he  in  derision,  not 
knowing  how  much  truth  he  was  uttering,  "in  a 
century  and  a  quarter  let  the  princes  of  the  earth 
tremble  in  their  palaces." 

Had  Johnson  been  truly  a  man  of  genius,  he 
would  have  escaped  the  shame  of  having,  in  his  old 
age,  aimed  at  freedom  the  feeble  shaft  which  was 
meant  to  have  carried  ruin.  He  wanted,  also,  that 
highest  rule  of  morality,  which  has  its  seat  in  the 
soul,  and  loves  to  do  service  for  freedom  and  for 
man ;  and  therefore  it  is,  that  his  name  is  never 
breathed  as  a  watchword,  his  writings  never  thrill 
as  oracles. 

The  pure-minded  man,  who  in  a  sensual  age,  be- 
came the  quickener  of  religious  fervor,  the  preacher 
to  the  poor,  John  "Wesley,  also  came  forward  to  de- 
fend the  system  of  the  court  with  the  usual  argu- 
ments. He  looked  so  steadily  towards  the  world 
beyond  the  skies,  that  he  could  not  brook  the  inter- 
ruption of  devout  gratitude  by  bloody  contests  in 
this  stage  of  being.  Besides,  he  saw  that  the  rup- 
ture between  the  English  and  the  Americans  was 
growing  wider  every  day,  and  to  him  the  total  de- 
fection of  America  was  the  evident  prelude  of  a 
conspiracy  against  monarchy,  of  which  the  bare 
thought  made  him  shudder.  "  No  governments  under 


PUBLIC    OPINION    IN    ENGLAND. 


261 


Heaven,"  said  he,  "  are  so  despotic  as  the  republican ;  CHAP. 
no  subjects  are  governed  in  so  arbitrary  a  manner  as  — , — 
those  of  a  commonwealth.  The  people  never  but  l*™- 
once  in  all  history  gave  the  sovereign  power,  and 
that  was  to  Masaniello  of  Naples.  Our  sins  will 
never  be  removed,  till  we  fear  God  and  honor  the 
king."  Wesley's  mental  constitution  was  not  robust 
enough  to  gaze  on  the  future  with  unblenched  calm. 
He  could  not  foresee  that  the  constellation  of  repub- 
lics, so  soon  to  rise  in  the  wilds  of  America,  would 
welcome  the  members  of  the  society,  which  he  was  to 
found,  as  the  pioneers  of  religion ;  that  the  breath  of 
liberty  would  waft  their  messages  to  the  masses  of 
the  people;  would  encourage  them  to  collect  the 
white  and  the  negro,  slave  and  master  in  the  green 
wood,  for  counsel  on  divine  love  and  the  full  assur- 
ance of  grace;  and  would  carry  their  consolation, 
and  songs,  and  prayers  to  the  furthest  cabins  in  the 
wilderness.  To  the  gladdest  of  glad  tidings  for  the 
political  regeneration  of  the  world,  Wesley  listened 
with  timid  trembling,  as  to  the  fearful  bursting  of 
the  floodgates  of  revolution ;  and  he  knew  not,  that 
God  was  doing  a  work,  which  should  lead  the  nations 
of  the  earth  to  joy. 

In  the  house  of  lords,  Camden,  on  the  sixteenth    ^ar> 
of  March,  took  the  occasion  of  the  motion  to  com-     16- 
mit  the  bill  depriving  New  England  of  the  fisheries, 
to  reply  not  to   ministers  only,  but   to   their  pen- 
sioned apologist,  in  a  speech  which  was  admired  in 
England,  and  gained   applause  of  Vergennes.      He 
justified  the  union  of  the  Americans,  and  refuted  the 
suggestion  that  New  York  was  or  could  be  detached 
from  it.     By  the  extent  of  America,  the  numbers  of 


262  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  its  people,  their  solid,  firm,  and  indissoluble  agreement 
V^Y^  on  the  great  basis  of  liberty  and  justice,  and  the  want 

°f  men  an(^  money  on  the  Pai*t  °f  England,  he  proved 
that  England  could  not  but  fail  in  her  attempt  at  coer- 
cion, and  that  the  ultimate  independence  of  America 
was  inevitable.  "  I  cannot  think  him  serious,"  said 
Sandwich.  "  Suppose  the  colonies  do  abound  in 
men ;  they  are  raw,  undisciplined,  and  cowardly.  I 
wish  instead  of  forty  or  fifty  thousand  of  these  brave 
fellows,  they  would  produce  in  the  field  at  least  two 
hundred  thousand ;  the  more  the  better ;  the  easier 
would  be  the  conquest.  At  the  siege  of  Louisburg, 
Sir  Peter  Warren  found  what  egregious  cowards  they 
were.  Believe  me,  my  lords,  the  very  sound  of  a 
cannon  would  send  them  off,  as  fast  as  their  feet 
could  carry  them."  He  then  abused  the  Americans 
for  not  paying  their  debts,  and  ascribed  their  associa- 
tions to  a  desire  to  defraud  their  creditors.  It  is 
memorable,  that  when  on  the  twenty-first,  the  de- 
bate was  renewed  and  the  bill  passed,  both  Rocking- 
ham  and  Shelburne,  the  heads  of  the  old  whigs,  and 
the  new,  inserted  in  their  protest  against  the  act,  that 
"  the  people  of  New  England  are  especially  entitled 
to  the  fisheries." 

Franklin,  as  he  heard  the  insinuations  of  Sandwich 
against  the  honesty  of  his  countrymen,  turned  on  his 
heel  in  wrath ;  nothing  was  left  for  him  but  to  go 
home  where  duty  called  him.  The  French  minister, 
who  revered  his  supreme  ability,  sought  with  him  one 
last  interview.  "  I  spoke  to  him,"  wrote  Gamier  to 
Vergennes,  "  of  the  part  which  our  president  Jeannin 
had  taken  in  establishing  the  independence  and  form- 
ing the  government  of  the  United  Provinces ; "  and 


PUBLIC    OPINION    IN    ENGLAND. 


263 


the  citation  of  the  precedent  cheered  Franklin  as  a  CHAP. 
prediction.  "But  then,"  subjoined  Gamier,  "they  have  ^^ 
neither  a  marine,  nor  allies,  nor  a  prince  of  Orange."  Mar.' 

A  large  part  of  his  last  day  in  London,  Franklin 
passed  with  Edmund  Burke,  and  however  much  he 
may  have  been  soured  and  exasperated  by  wrongs 
and  insults  to  himself  and  his  country,  he  still  re- 
garded the  approaching  independence  as  an  event 
which  gave  him  the  greatest  concern.  He  called  up 
the  happy  days  which  America  had  passed  under 
the  protection  of  England ;  he  said  "  that  the  British 
empire  was  the  only  instance  of  a  great  empire,  in 
which  the  most  distant  members  had  been  as  well 
governed  as  the  metropolis;  but  then,"  reasoned 
he,  "the  Americans  are  going  to  lose  the  means 
which  secured  to  them  this  rare  and  precious  advan- 
tage. The  question  with  them,  is  not  whether  they 
are  to  remain  as  they  had  been  before  the  troubles, 
for  better,  they  could  not  hope  to  be ;  but  whether 
they  are  to  give  up  so  happy  a  situation  without  a 
struggle.  I  lament  the  separation  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  colonies ;  but  it  is  inevitable." 

So  parted  the  great  champion  of  the  British  aris- 
to^racy,  and  the  man  of  the  people.  For  what  noble 
purpose  will  they  two  act  together  once  more  ? 
When  will  an  age  again  furnish  minds  like  theirs  ? 
Burke  revered  Franklin  to  the  last,  foretold  the 
steady  brightening  of  his  fame ;  and  drew  from  his 
integrity  the  pleasing  hope  of  ultimate  peace. 

On  the  morning  after  his  conversation  with 
Burke,  Franklin  posted  to  Portsmouth  with  all 
speed,  and  before  his  departure  from  London  was 


264  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  known,    was    embarked    for    Philadelphia.      What 

-O..X..LV,  % 

^r^  tidings  were  to  greet  his  landing  ? 

1Mar5'  "  He  nas  l6^  w*tn  ^d  designs,"  said  Hutchinson ; 
"  had  I  been  the  master,  his  embarkation  would  have 
been  prevented." — "With  his  superiority,"  said  Grar- 
nier,  "  and  with  the  confidence  of  the  Americans,  he 
will  be  able  to  cut  out  work  for  the  ministers  who 
have  persecuted  him."  Vergennes  felt  assured  he 
would  spjread  the  conviction  that  the  British  minis- 
try had  irrevocably  chosen  its  part ;  and  that  Amer- 
ica had  no  choice  but  independence. 

With  personal  friends,  with  merchants,  with  man- 
ufacturers, with  the  liberal  statesmen  of  England, 
with  supporters  of  the  ministry,  Franklin  had  labored 
on  all  occasions  earnestly,  disinterestedly,  and  long. 
With  his  disappearance  from  the  scene,  the  last  gleam 
of  a  compromise  vanished.  The  administration  and 
their  followers  called  him  insincere.  They  insisted  on 
believing  to  the  last,  that  he  had  private  instructions 
which  would  have  justified  him  in  accepting  the 
regulating  act  for  Massachusetts,  and  they  attributed 
his  answers  to  an  inflexible  and  subtle  hostility  to 
England.  But  nothing  deceives  like  jealousy ;  he  per- 
severingly  endeavored  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  Mng 
and  his  servants.  At  the  bar  of  the  house  of  com- 
mons he  first  revealed  his  conviction,  that  persistence 
in  taxation  would  compel  independence ;  it  was  for 
the  use  of  the  government,  that  once  to  Strahan  and 
then  to  Lord  Howe  he  explained  the  American  ques- 
tion with  frankness  and  precision.  The  British  min- 
istry overreached  themselves  by  not  believing  him. 
"  Speaking  the  truth  to  them  in  sincerity,"  said  Frank- 
lin, "  was  my  only  finesse." 


PUBLIC    OPINION    IN    ENGLAND.  265 

The  ability  displayed  by  him  in  his  intercourse  CHAP. 
with  the  British  government ,  has,  in  its  way,  never 
been  exceeded.  He  contemplated  the  course  of 
events  as  calmly  as  he  would  have  watched  a  process 
of  nature.  His  judgment  was  quick  and  infallible ; 
his  communications  prompt,  precise,  and  unequivocal ; 
his  frankness  perfect.  He  never  shunned  responsi- 
bility, and  never  assumed  too  much.  In  every  in- 
stance, his  answers  to  the  ministry  and  their  emissa- 
ries, were  those  which  the  voice  of  America  would 
have  dictated,  could  he  have  taken  her  counsel.  In 
him  is  discerned  no  deficiency  and  no  excess.  Full 
of  feeling,  even  to  passion,  he  observed,  and  reasoned, 
and  spoke  serenely.  Of  all  men,  he  was  a  friend  to 
peace  ;  but  the  terrors  of  a  sanguinary  civil  war  did 
not  confuse  his  perceptions  or  impair  his  decision. 
Neither  Chatham,  nor  Rockingham,  nor  Burke, 
blamed  Franklin  for  renouncing  allegiance ;  and  we 
shall  see  Fox  once  more  claim  his  friendship,  and 
Shelburne  and  the  younger  Pitt  rest  upon  him  with 
the  confidence  which  he  deserved.  He  went  home 
to  the  work  of  independence,  and,  through  indepen- 
dence, of  peace. 

He  was  sailing  out  of  the  British  channel  with  a 
fair  wind  and  a  smooth  sea,  when  on  the  twenty-    Mar. 
second  of  March,  on  occasion  of  the  bill  prohibiting     22< 
New  England  from  the  fisheries,  Edmund  Burke,  for 
the  vindication  of  his  party,  but  with  no  hope  of  suc- 
cess, brought  forward  in  the  house  of  commons  reso- 
lutions for  conciliation.     Beyond  all  others,  he  had 
asserted  the  right  of  parliament  to  tax  America ;  and 
he  could  not  wholly  justify  its  uprising.     He  began, 
therefore,  with  censuring  parliament  for  its  many  in- 

VOL.    VII.  23 


266  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

I 

CHAP,  consistencies  in  its  legislation  on  the  subject ;  and 

^-r^  then  entered  upon  a  splendid  eulogy  of  the  colonies, 

1Mar*  wnose  rapid  growth  from  families  to  communities, 

22-     from  villages  to  nations,  attended  by  a  commerce, 

great  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  numbers,  had 

added  to  England  in  a  single  life  as  much  as  England 

had  been  growing  to  in  a  series  of  seventeen  hundred 

years. 

"  As  to  the  wealth  which  the  colonies  have  drawn 
from  the  sea  by  their  fisheries,"  he  continued,  speak- 
ing specially  of  the  bill  then  in  its  last  stage  before 
the  house,  "  you  had  all  that  matter  fully  opened  at 
your  bar.  And  pray,  sir,  what  in  the  world  is  equal 
to  it?  Pass  by  the  other  parts,  and  look  at  the 
manner  in  which  the  people  of  New  England  have  of 
late  carried  on  the  whale  fishery.  Whilst  we  follow 
them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  of  ice,  and  be- 
hold them  penetrating  into  the  deepest  frozen  re- 
cesses of  Hudson's  Bay  and  Davis's  Straits,  whilst  we 
are  looking  for  them  beneath  the  arctic  circle,  we 
hear  that  they  have  pierced  into  the  opposite  region 
of  polar  cold,  that  they  are  at  the  antipodes,  and 
engaged  under  the  frozen  serpent  of  the  south. 
Falkland  Island,  which  seemed  too  remote  and  ro- 
mantic an  object  for  the  grasp  of  national  ambition, 
is  but  a  stage  and  resting  place  in  the  progress  of 
their  victorious  industry.  Nor  is  the  equinoctial 
heat  more  discouraging  to  them,  than  the  accumu- 
lated winter  of  both  the  poles.  We  know  that 
whilst  some  of  them  draw  the  line  and  strike  the 
harpoon  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  others  run  the  longi- 
tude, and  pursue  their  gigantic  game  along  the  coast 
of  Brazil.  No  sea  but  what  is  vexed  by  their  fishe- 


PUBLIC    OPINION    IN    ENGLAND.  267 

ries.  No  climate  that  is  not  witness  to  their  toils.  CHAP. 
Neither  the  perseverance  of  Holland,  nor  the  activity 
of  France,  nor  the  dexterous  and  firm  sagacity  of 
English  enterprise,  ever  carried  this  most  perilous  22. 
mode  of  hard  industry  to  the  extent  to  which  it  has 
been  pushed  by  this  recent  people ;  a  people  who  are 
still,  as  it  were,  but  in  the  gristle,  and  not  yet  hard- 
ened into  the  bone  of  manhood.  When  I  contem- 
plate these  things ;  when  I  know  that  the  colonies 
in  general  owe  little  or  nothing  to  any  care  of  ours, 
and  that  they  are  not  squeezed  into  this  happy  form 
by  the  constraints  of  watchful  and  suspicious  govern- 
ment, but  that,  through  a  wise  and  salutary  neglect, 
a  generous  nature  has  been  suffered  to  take  her  own 
way  to  perfection  ;  when  I  reflect  upon  these  effects, 
when  I  see  how  profitable  they  have  been  to  us,  I 
feel  all  the  pride  of  power  sink,  and  all  presumption  in 
the  wisdom  of  human  contrivances  melt  and  die  away 
within  me.  My  rigor  relents.  I  pardon  something 
to  the  spirit  of  liberty. 

u  From  six  capital  sources,  of  descent ;  of  form  of 
government ;  of  religion  in  the  northern  provinces  ; 
of  manners  in  the  southern  ;  of  education  ;  of  the  re- 
moteness of  situation  from  the  first  mover  of  govern- 
ment ;  from  all  these  causes  a  fierce  spirit  of  liberty 
has  grown  up.  It  looks  to  me  to  be  narrow  and 
pedantic  to  prosecute  that  spirit  as  criminal ;  to 
apply  the  ordinary  ideas  of  criminal  justice  to  this 
great  public  contest.  I  do  not  know  the  method  of 
drawing  up  an  indictment  against  a  whole  people. 

"  My  idea,  therefore,  without  considering  whether 
we  yield  as  matter  of  right,  or  grant  as  matter  of 
favor,  is  to  admit  the  people  of  our  colonies  into  an 


268  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  interest  in  the  constitution.     A  revenue  from  Anier- 

XXIV.     .         .         __  ,  .  i   MI* 

*— , —  ica !      Y  ou  never  can  receive  it,  no,  not  a  shilling. 

l£r  "^or  a^  seryicei  whether  of  revenue,  trade,  or  empire, 
22.  my  trust  is  in  her  interest  in  the  British  constitution. 
My  hold  of  the  colonies  is  in  the  close  affection  which 
grows  from  common  names,  from  kindred  blood,  from 
similar  privileges,  and  equal  protection.  These  are 
ties,  which  though  light  as  air,  are  as  strong  as  links 
of  iron.  Let  the  colonies  always  keep  the  idea  of 
their  civil  rights  associated  with  your  government — 
they  will  cling  and  grapple  to  you ;  and  no  force 
under  heaven  will  be  of  power  to  tear  them  from 
their  allegiance.  But  let  it  be  once  understood  that 
your  government  may  be  one  thing,  and  their  privi- 
leges another ;  that  these  two  things  may  exist  with- 
out any  mutual  relation ;  the  cement  is  gone  ;  the 
cohesion  is  loosened ;  and  every  thing  hastens  to 
decay  and  dissolution.  As  long  as  you  have  the 
wisdom  to  keep  the  sovereign 'authority  of  this  coun- 
try as  the  sanctuary  of  liberty,  the  sacred  temple  con- 
secrated to  our  common  faith,  wherever  the  chosen 
race  and  sons  of  England  worship  freedom,  they  will 
turn  their  faces  towards  you.  The  more  they  multi- 
ply, the  more  friends  you  will  have ;  the  more  ar- 
dently they  love  liberty,  the  more-  perfect  will  be 
their  obedience.  Slavery  they  can  have  anywhere. 
It  is  a  weed  that  grows  in  every  soil.  But  until  you 
become  lost  to  all  feeling  of  your  true  interest  and 
your  natural  dignity,  freedom  they  can  have  from 
none  but  you.  This  is  the  commodity  of  price,  of 
which  you.  have  the  monopoly.  This  is  the  true  act 
of  navigation,  which  binds  to  you  the  commerce  of 
the  colonies,  and  through  them  secures  to  you  the 


PUBLIC    OPINION    IN    ENGLAND.  269 

wealth  of  the  world.     Deny  them  this  participation  CHAP. 
of  freedom,  and  you  break  the  unity  of  the  empire.  ^y-J 


It  is  the  spirit  of  the  English  constitution,  which, 
infused  through  the  mighty  mass,  pervades,  feeds,  22. 
unites,  invigorates,  vivifies  every  part  of  the  empire, 
even  down  to  the  minutest  member.  Is  it  not  the 
same  virtue  which  does  every  thing  for  us  here  in 
England  ? 

"  All  this,  I  know  well  enough,  will  sound  wild 
and  chimerical  to  the  profane  herd  of  those  vulgar 
and  mechanical  politicians,  who  think  that  nothing 
exists  but  what  is  gross  and  material  ;  and  who, 
therefore,  far  from  being  qualified  to  be  directors  of 
the  great  movement  of  empire,  are  not  fit  to  turn  a 
wheel  in  the  machine.  But  to  men  truly  initiated 
and  rightly  taught,  these  ruling  and  master  princi- 
ples, which,  in  the  opinion  of  such  men  as  I  have 
mentioned,  have  no  substantial  existence,  are  in  truth 
every  thing,  and  all  in  all.  Magnanimity  in  politics 
is  not  seldom  the  truest  wisdom  ;  and  a  great  empire 
and  little  minds  go  ill  together.  If  we  are  conscious 
of  our  situation,  and  glow  with  zeal  to  fill  our  places 
as  becomes  our  station  and  ourselves,  we  ought  to 
auspicate  all  our  public  proceedings  on  America, 
with  the  old  warning  of  the  church,  LIFT  UP  YOUR 
HEARTS  !  We  ought  to  elevate  our  minds  to  the 
greatness  of  that  trust  to  which  the  order  of  Provi- 
dence has  called  us.  By  adverting  to  the  dignity  of 
this  high  calling,  our  ancestors  have  turned  a  savage 
wilderness  into  a  glorious  empire  ;  and  have  made 
the  most  extensive,  and  the  only  honorable  con- 
quests, not  by  destroying,  but  by  promoting  the 

VOL.  vii.  23  * 


270  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,   wealth,  the   number,  the  happiness  of  the  human 
•— ^  race." 


three  hours,  Burke  was  heard  with  atten- 
22.  tion ;  but  after  a  reply  by  Jenkinson,  his  deep  wis- 
dom was  scoffed  away  by  a  vote  of  more  than  three 
to  one.  It  was  the  moment  of  greatest  depression  to 
the  friends  of  liberty  in  England ;  their  efforts  in 
parliament  only  exposed  their  want  of  power.  Minis- 
ters anticipated  as  little  resistance  in  the  colonies. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

VIRGINIA  PREPARES  FOR  SELF-DEFENCE. 
MARCH — APRIL,  1775. 

FROM  prejudice,  habit,  and  affection,  the  members  of  CHAP. 
the  convention  of  Virginia,  in  which  even  the  part  — . — 
of  Augusta  county,  west  of  the  AJleghany  mountains,  l£™ ' 
was  represented,   cherished  the   system   of  limited     20. 
monarchy  under  which  they  had  been  born  and  edu- 
cated in  their  land  of  liberty.      They  were   accus- 
tomed to   associate   all   ideas   of  security  in   their 
political  rights  with  the  dynasty  of  Hanover,  and  had 
never,  even  in  thought,  desired  to   renounce  their 
allegiance.     They  loved  to  consider  themselves  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  great  British  empire.     The  distant 
life  of  landed  proprietors  in  solitary  mansion  houses, 
favored  independence  of  thought ;  but  it  also  gene- 
rated an  aristocracy,  which  differed  widely  from  the 
simplicity  and  equality  of  New  England.     Educated 
in  the  Anglican  church,  no  religious  zeal  had  imbued 
them  with  a  fixed  hatred  of  kingly  power ;  no  deep 
seated  antipathy  to  a  distinction  of  ranks,  no  theoretic 
zeal  for  the  introduction  of  a  republic,  no  speculative 


272  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  fanaticism  drove  them  to  a  restless  love  of  change. 

— . —  They  had,  on  the  contrary,  the  greatest  aversion  to  a 

LMar    revolution,  and  abhorred  the  dangerous  experiment 

2°-   ,  of  changing  their  form  of  government  without  some 

absolute  necessity. 

Virginia  was,  moreover,  wholly  unprepared  for 
war.  Its  late  expedition  against  the  Shawanese  In 
dians  had  left  a  debt  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds ;  its  currency  was  of  paper  and  it  had 
no  efficient  system  of  revenue.  Its  soil,  especially  in 
the  low  country,  was  cultivated  by  negro  slaves,  so 
that  the  laborers  in  the  field  could  not  furnish  re- 
cruits for  an  army.  Except  a  little  powder  in  a 
magazine  near  Williamsburg,  it  was  destitute  of  war- 
like stores ;  and  it  had  no  military  defences.  Of  all 
the  colonies  it  was  the  most  open  to  attack;  the 
magnificent  bay  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  deep 
water  of  the  James,  the  Potomac,  and  other  rivers, 
bared  it  to  invasions  from  the  sea. 

The  people  had  been  quick  to  resent  aggressions, 
but  they  had  not  been  willing  to  admit  the  thought 
of  making  that  last  appeal  which  would  involve  in- 
dependence. Such  was  the  state  of  Virginia,  when 
on  the  twentieth  of  March  its  second  convention  as- 
sembled. The  place  of  meeting  was  the  old  church  in 
Richmond.  The  proceedings  of  the  continental  con- 
gress were  approved,  and  the  delegates  of  the  colony 
in  congress  were  applauded  with  perfect  unanimity. 
On  the  twenty-third,  the  mediating  interposition  of 
the  assembly  of  Jamaica  was  considered,  and  was  re- 
cognised as  a  proof  of  their  generous  and  affectionate 
interest,  and  "  their  patriotic  endeavors  to  fix  the  just 
claims  of  the  colonists  upon  permanent  constitutional 


VIRGINIA    PREPARES    FOR    SELF-DEFENCE.  273 


principles  ;  "  and  the  convention  of  the  Old  Dominion 
renewed  their  assurances,  "  that  it  was  the  most  ardent  ^^^ 
wish  of  their  colony  and  of  the  whole  continent  of 
North  America,  to  see  a  speedy  return  of  those  hal- 
cyon  days  when  they  lived  a  free  and  happy  people." 

To  Patrick  Henry  this  language  seemed  likely  to 
lull  the  public  mind  into  confidence,  at  a  time  when 
the  interruption  of  the  sessions  of  the  general  assem- 
bly left  them  "  no  opportunity,  in  their  legislative 
capacity,  of  making  any  provision  to  secure  their 
rights  from  the  further  violations  with  which  they 
were  threatened."  He  therefore  proposed  "  that  this 
colony  be  immediately  put  into  a  posture  of  defence, 
and  that  a  committee  prepare  a  plan  for  the  embody- 
ing, arming,  and  disciplining  such  a  number  of  men, 
as  may  be  sufficient  for  that  purpose."  The  resolu- 
tion was  opposed  by  Bland,  Harrison,  and  Pen- 
dleton,  three  of  the  delegates  of  Virginia  in  congress, 
and  by  Nicholas,  who  had  been  among  the  most 
resolute  in  the  preceding  May.  The  thought  of  an 
actual  conflict  in  arms  with  England  was  new  ;  they 
counted  on  the  influence  of  the  friends  of  liberty  in 
the  parent  country,  the  interposition  of  the  manufac- 
turing interests,  or  the  relenting  of  the  sovereign 
himself.  uAre  we  ready  for  war?"  they  asked; 
"  are  we  a  military  people  ?.  Where  are  our  stores, 
our  soldiers,  our  generals,  our  money  ?  We  are  de- 
fenceless ;  yet  we  talk  of  war  against  one  of  the  most 
formidable  nations  in  the  world.  It  will  be  time 
enough  to  resort  to  measures  of  despair  when  every 
well-founded  hope  has  vanished." 

"What,"  rejoined  Henry,  "has  there  been  in  the 
conduct  of  the  British  ministry  for  the  last  ten  years  to 


274  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  justify  hope  ?  Are  fleets  and  armies  necessary  to  a 
— ^  work  of  love  and  reconciliation  ?  These  are  the  imple- 
LMar '  ments  °f  subjugation,  sent  over  to  rivet  upon  us  the 
chains  which  the  British  ministry  have  been  so  long 
forging.  And  what  have  we  to  oppose  to  them? 
Shall  we  try  argument  ?  We  have  been  trying  that 
for  the  last  ten  years ;  have  we  any  thing  new  to 
offer  ?  Shall  we  resort  to  entreaty  and  supplication  2 
We  have  petitioned — we  have  remonstrated — we 
have  supplicated — and  we  have  been  spurned  from 
the  foot  of  the  throne.  In  vain  may  we  indulge  the 
fond  hope  of  reconciliation.  There  is  no  longer  room 
for  hope.  If  we  wish  to  be  free,  we  must  fight !  I 
repeat  it  sir,  we  must  fight !  An  appeal  to  arms 
and  to  the  God  of  Hosts  is  all  that  is  left  us ! 

"  They  tell  me,  that  we  are  weak ;  but  shall  we 
gather  strength  by  irresolution  ?  We  are  not  weak. 
Three  millions  of  people,  armed  in  the  holy  cause  of 
liberty,  and  in  such  a  country,  are  invincible  by  any 
force  which  our  enemy  can  send  against  us.  We 
shall  not  fight  alone.  A  just  God  presides  over  the 
destinies  of  nations  ;  and  will  raise  up  friends  for  us. 
The  battle  is  not  to  the  strong  alone ;  it  is  to  the 
vigilant,  the  active,  the  brave.  Besides,  we  have  no 
election.  If  we  were  base  enough  to  desire  it,  it  is 
too  late  to  retire  from  the  contest.  There  is  no  re- 
treat, but  in  submission  and  slavery.  The  war  is 
inevitable — and  let  it  come !  let  it  come ! 

"  Is  life  so  dear,  or  peace  so  sweet,  as  to  be  pur- 
chased at  the  price  of  chains  and  slavery  ?  Forbid 
it,  Almighty  God  ! — I  know  not  what  course  others 
may  take ;  but  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty,  or  give 
me  death." 


VIRGINIA    PREPARES    FOR    SELF-DEFENCE.  275 

His  transfigured  features  glowed  as  lie  spoke,  and  CHAP. 
his  words  fell  like  a  doom  of  fate.  He  was  supported  — ,—- - 
by  Kichard  Henry  Lee,  who  made  an  estimate  of  the 
force  which  Britain  could  employ  against  the  colo- 
nies, and  after  comparing  it  with  their  means  of  re- 
sistance, proclaimed,  that  the  auspices  were  good ; 
adding,  that 

Thrice  is  he  armed,  who  hath  his  quarrel  just ! 

The  resolutions  were  adopted.  To  give  them 
effect,  a  committee  was  raised,  consisting  of  Patrick 
Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Washington,  Jefferson, 
and  others,  who  in  a  few  days  reported  a  plan  for  the 
establishment  of  a  well-regulated  militia  by  forming 
in  every  county  one  or  more  volunteer  companies  and 
troops  of  horse,  to  be  in  constant  training  and  readi- 
ness to  act  on  any  emergency.  Whatever  doubts 
had  been  before  expressed,  the  plan  was  unanimously 
accepted.  Nicholas  would  even  have  desired  the 
more  energetic  measure  of  organizing  an  army.  The 
convention  also  voted  to  encourage  the  manufacture 
of  woollen,  cotton,  and  linen  ;  of  gunpowder  *v  of  salt, 
and  iron,  and  steel ;  and  recommended  to  the  inhab- 
itants to  use  colonial  manufactures  in  preference  to 
all  others.  Before  dissolving  their  body,  they  elected 
their  former  delegates  to  the  general  congress,  in 
May,  adding  to  the  number  Thomas  Jefferson,  "  in 
case  of  the  non-attendance  of  Peyton  Randolph." 

To  intimidate  the  Virginians,  Dunmore  issued  va- 
rious proclamations,  and  circulated  a  rumor  that  he 
would  excite  an  insurrection  of  their  slaves.  He  also 
sent  a  body  of  marines  in  the  night  preceding  the 
twenty-first  of  April,  to  carry  off  the  gunpowder,  stored 
at  Williamsburg  hi  the  colony's  magazine.  The  party 


276  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  succeeded  ;  but  as  soon  as  it  was  known,  drums  were 

XXV 

—  r-^  sent  through  the  city  to  alarm  the  inhabitants,  the 


^dependent  company  got  under  arms,  and  the 
21.  people  assembled  for  consultation.  At  their  instance 
the  mayor  and  corporation  asked  the  governor  upon 
what  motives  the  powder  had  been  carried  off  pri- 
vately "by  an  armed  force,  particularly  at  a  time 
when  they  were  apprehensive  of  an  insurrection 
among  their  slaves  ;"  and  they  peremptorily  de- 
manded that  it  should  be  restored. 

The  governor  at  first  answered  evasively  ;  but 
on  hearing  that  the  citizens  had  reassembled  under 
arms,  he  abandoned  himself  to  passion.  "  The  whole 
country,"  said  he,  "  can  easily  be  made  a  solitude,  and 
by  the  living  God  !  if  any  insult  is  offered  to  me,  or 
those  who  have  obeyed  my  orders,  I  will  declare 
freedom  to  the  slaves,  and  lay  the  town  in  ashes." 

The  offer  of  freedom  to  the  negroes  came  very 
oddly  from  the  representative  of  the  nation  which 
had  sold  them  to  their  present  masters,  and  of  the 
king  who  had  been  displeased  with  the  colony  for 
its  desire  to  tolerate  that  inhuman  traffic  no  longer  ; 
and  it  was  but  a  sad  resource  for  a  commercial  me- 
tropolis, to  keep  a  hold  on  its  colony  by  letting  loose 
slaves  against  its  own  colonists. 

The  seizure  of  the  powder  startled  Virginia. 
"  This  first  public  insult  is  not  to  be  tamely  submit- 
ted to,"  wrote  Hugh  Mercer  and  others  from  Fred- 
ericksburg  to  Washington  ;  and  they  proposed,  as  a 
body  of  light-horsemen,  to  march  to  Williamsburg 
for  the  honor  of  Virginia.  Gloucester  county  would 
have  the  powder  restored.  The  Henrico  committe^ 
would  be  content  with  nothing  less.  Bedford  offered 


VIRGINIA    PREPARES    FOR    SELF-DEFENCE.  277 


a  premium  for  the  manufacture  of  gunpowder.  The 
independent  company  of  Dumfries  could  be  depended 
upon  for  any  service  which  respected  the  liberties  of 
America.  The  Albemarle  volunteers  "  were  ready 
to  resent  arbitrary  power,  or  die  in  the  attempt." 
"  I  expect  the  magistrates  of  Williamsburg,  on  their 
allegiance,"  such  was  Dunmore's  message,  "to  stop 
the  march  of  the  people  now  on  their  .way,  before 
they  enter  this  city  ;  otherwise  it  is  my  fixed  purpose 
to  arm  all  my  own  negroes,  and  receive  and  declare 
free  all  others  that  will  come  to  me.  I  do  enjoin  the 
magistrates  and  all  loyal  subjects,  to  repair  to  my 
assistance,  or  I  shall  consider  the  whole  country  in 
rebellion,  and  myself  at  liberty  to  annoy  it  by  every 
possible  means  ;  and  I  shall  not  hesitate  at  reducing 
houses  to  ashes,  and  spreading  devastation  wherever 
I  can  reach."  To  the  secretary  of  state  he  wrote  : 
"  With  a  small  body  of  troops  and  arms,  I  could 
raise  such  a  force  from  among  Indians,  negroes,  and 
other  persons,  as  would  soon  reduce  the  refractory 
people  of  this  colony  to  obedience." 

On  Saturday,  the  twenty-ninth  of  April,  there 
were  at  Fredericksburg  upwards  of  six  hundred  well 
armed  men.  A  council  of  one  hundred  and  two 
weighed  the  moderating  advice  received  from  Wash- 
ington and  Peyton  Kandolph,  and  they  agreed  to 
disperse  ;  yet  not  till  they  had  pledged  to  each  other 
their  lives  and  fortunes,  to  reassemble  at  a  moment's 
warning,  and  by  force  of  arms  to  defend  the  laws,  the 
liberty,  and  rights  of  Virginia,  or  any  sister  colony, 
from  unjust  and  wicked  invasion.  Did  they  forebode 
that  the  message  from  a  sister  colony  was  already 
on  the  wing  ? 

VOL.  vii.        24 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 


THE  KING  WATTS  TO  HEAR  OF  THE  SUCCESS  OF  LORD  NORTH'S 
PROPOSITION. 

APRIL — MAT,  1775. 

CHAP.  EvEtf  so  late  as  the  first  day  of  April,  the  provincial 
> — <~~J  congress  of  Massachusetts,  still  fondly  hoping  for  a 
i.7rii "  Peace^  en^  °f  a^  their  troubles,  so  far  recognised 
the  authority  of  Gage,  as  to  vote,  that  if  he  would 
issue  writs  in  the  usual  form  for  the  election  of  a 
general  assembly,  to  be  held  on  the  last  Wednesday 
in  May,  the  towns  ought  to  obey  the  precepts,  and 
elect  members  ;  but  in  case  such  writs  should  not  be 
issued,  they  recommended  the  choice  of  delegates 
for  a  third  provincial  congress.  On  Sunday,  the 
second,  two  vessels  arrived  at  Marblehead  with  the 
tidings,  that  both  houses  of  parliament  had  pledged 
to  the  king  their  lives  and  fortunes  for  the  reduction 
of  America,  that  New  England  was  prohibited  from 
the  fisheries,  and  that  the  army  of  Gage  was  to  be 
April  largely  reenforced.  The  next  morning,  congress  re- 
quired the  attendance  of  all  absent  members,  and 
desired  the  towns  not  yet  represented  to  send  mem- 
bers without  delay. 


THE    KING   AND    THE   NATION    IN    SUSPENSE.  279 

"  If  America,"  wrote  Joseph  Warren  on  that  day,  CHAP. 
"  is  an  humble  instrument  of  the  salvation  of  Britain,  ^^ 
it  will  give  us  the  sincerest  joy  ;  but  if  Britain  must 
lose  her  liberty,  she  must  lose  it  alone.  America 
must,  and  will  be  free.  The  contest  may  be  severe — 
the  end  will  be  glorious.  United  and  prepared  as 
we  are,  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  of  success,  if  we 
should  be  compelled  to  the  last  appeal ;  but  we  mean 
not  to  make  that  appeal  until  we  can  be  justified  in 
doing  it  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man.  Happy  shall 
we  be,  if  the  mother  country  will  allow  us  the  free 
enjoyment  of  our  rights,  and  indulge  us  in  the  pleas- 
ing employment  of  aggrandizing  her." 

The  most  appalling  danger  proceeded  from  the 
Indians  of  the  northwest,  whom  it  was  now  known 
Canadian  emissaries  were  seeking  to  influence.  The 
hateful  office  fell  naturally  into  the  hands  of  La 
Corne,  Hamilton,  the  lieutenant  governor  for  De- 
troit, and  others,  who  were  most  ready  to  serve  the 
ba4  passions  of  those  from  whom  they  expected 
favors.  Guy  Johnson  was  also  carefully  removing 
the  American  missionaries  from  the  Six  Nations. 

Countervailing  measures  were  required  for  imme- 
diate security.  Dartmouth  college,  "  a  new  and  de- 
fenceless "  institution  of  charity  on  the  frontier,  where 
children  of  the  Six  Nations  received  Christian  train- 
ing, was  "  threatened  with  an  army  of  savages ;  "  its 
president,  Eleazer  Wheelock,  sent,  therefore,  as  the 
first  envoy  from  New  England,  the  young  preacher 
James  Dean,  who  was  a  great  master  of  the  language 
of  the  Iroquois,  "  to  itinerate  as  a  missionary  among 
the  tribes  in  Canada,  and  brighten  the  chain  of 
friendship." 


280  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  To  the  Mohawks,  whose  ancient  territory  included 
— r~-  the  passes  from  Canada  and  the  war-paths  from  the 
more  remote  western  nations,  the  Massachusetts  con- 
gress despatched  the  humane  and  thoughtful  Kirk- 
land,  who  had  lived  among  them  as  a  missionary ;  and 
who  was  now  instructed  to  prevail  with  them  either 
to  take  part  with  the  Americans,  or  "  at  least  to  stand 
neuter,  and  not  assist  their  enemies."  To  each  of  the 
converted  Indians  who  were  domiciled  at  Stockbridge, 
the  congress  voted  a  blanket  and  a  ribbon  as  a  testi- 
mony of  affection,  saying,  "  we  are  all  brothers."  The 
Stockbridge  Indians,  after  deliberating  in  council  for 
two  days,  promised  in  their  turn  to  intercede  with 
the  Six  Nations  in  behalf  of  the  colonists  among 
whom  they  dwelt. 

Meantime  the  Green  Mountain  Boys  formally 
renounced  the  government  of  New  York,  which  was 
virtually  renouncing  their  allegiance  to  the  king ; 
and  agreed  to  seize  the  fort  at  Ticonderoga  as  soon 
as  the  king's  troops  should  commit  hostilities.  Their 
purpose  was  communicated  in  profound  secrecy  to 
Thomas  Walker,  a  restless  Anglo-Canadian,  at  Mon- 
treal. In  my  opinion,"  wrote  Walker  to  Samuel 
Adams  and  Joseph  Warren,  "they  are  the  most 
proper  persons  for  this  job,  which  will  effectually  curb 
the  province  of  Quebec." 

The  congress  of  Massachusetts  adopted  a  code  for 
its  future  army,  and  authorized  the  committee  of 
safety  to  form  and  pay  six  companies  of  artillery ;  yet 
they  refused  to  take  into  pay  any  part  of  the  militia 
or  minute  men.  They  enjoined  every  town  to  have 
its  committee  of  correspondence ;  they  ordered  a  day 
of  fasting  and  prayer  for  the  union  of  the  American 


THE    KING   AND    THE  NATION    IN    SUSPENSE.  281 

colonies,  and  their  direction  to  such  measures  as  God  CHAP. 

XXVI 

would  approve  ;  they  encouraged  the  poor  of  Boston  ^^ 
to  move  into  the  country;  they  sent  special  envoys 
to  each  of  the  other  New  England  states  to  concert 
measures  for  raising  an  army  of  defence ;  and  they 
urged  "the  militia  and  minute  men"  in  the  several 
towns  to  be  on  the  alert.  They  forbade  every  act  that 
could  be  interpreted  as  a  commencement  of  hostilities ; 
but  they  resolved  unanimously  that  the  militia  might 
act  on  the  defensive.  If  the  forces  of  the  colony  should 
be  called  out,  the  members  of  the  congress  agreed  to 
repair  instantly  to  Concord.  Then,  on  the  fifteenth 
of  April,  they  adjourned,  expecting  a  long  and  des- 
perate war  with  the  mighty  power  of  Great  Britain, 
yet  with  no  treasury  but  the  good-will  of  the  people  ; 
not  a  soldier  in  actual  service ;  hardly  ammunition 
enough  for  a  parade  day;  as  for  artillery,  having 
scarce  more  than  ten  cannon  of  iron,  four  of  brass, 
and  two  cohorns;  with  no  executive  but  the  commit- 
tee of  safety ;  no  internal  government  but  by  com- 
mittees of  correspondence;  no  visible  centre  of 
authority;  and  no  distinguished  general  officer  to 
take  the  command  of  the  provincial  troops.  Anarchy 
must  prevail,  unless  there  lives  in  the  heart  of  the 
people  an  invisible,  resistless,  formative  principle,  that 
can  organize  and  guide. 

Gage,  who  himself  had  about  three  thousand 
effective  men,  learned  through  his  spies  the  state  of 
the  country  and  the  ludicrously  scanty  amount  of 
stores,  collected  by  the  provincial  committees  at 
Worcester  and  Concord.  The  report  increased  his 
confidence  as  well  as  the  insolence  of  his  officers ;  and 
as  soon  as  the  members  of  the  congress  had  gone  to 

VOL.  vn.        24* 


282  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  their  homes,  he  resolved  on  striking  a  blow,  as  the 

XXVI 

1  —  r^  king  desired.. 


A7  Jill'  ^n  tlie  tentk  of  April,  the  lord  mayor  Wilkes, 
10.  with  the  aldermen  and  livery  of  London,  approached 
the  throne,  to  complain  to  the  king  that  the  real  pur- 
pose of  his  ministers,  whom  they  earnestly  besought 
him  to  dismiss,  was,  "to  establish  arbitrary  power 
over  all  America  ;  "  the  king  answered  :  "  It  is  with 
the  utmost  astonishment  that  I  find  any  of  my  sub- 
jects capable  of  encouraging  the  rebellious  disposition 
which  unhappily  exists  in  some  of  my  colonies  ;  "  and 
by  a  letter  from  the  lord  chamberlain,  he  announced 
his  purpose  never  again  to  receive  on  the  throne  any 
address  from  the  lord  mayor  and  aldermen,  but  in 
their  corporate  capacity. 

If  more  troops  were  sent,  the  king's  standard 
erected,  and  a  few  of  the  leaders  taken  up,  Hutchin- 
son  was  ready  to  stake  his  life  for  the  submission  of 
the  colonies.  Some  of  the  ministry  believed  that 
they  were  getting  more  and  more  divided,  and  that 
there  would  be  no  great  difficulty  in  bringing  toe 
contest  to  a  conclusion.  The  sending  reinforcements 
was  treated  as  almost  a  matter  of  indifference. 

To  assist  in  disjoining  the  colonies,  New  York, 
North  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  were  excepted  from  re- 
straints imposed  on  the  trade  and  fisheries  of  all  the 
rest.  That  North  Carolina  could  be  retained  in 
obedience,  through  a  part  of  its  own  people,  was  be- 
lieved in  England,  on  the  authority  of  its  governor. 
With  the  utmost  secrecy,  the  king  sent  over  Allan 
Maclean  of  Torloish,  to  entice  to  the  royal  standard 
the  Highlanders  of  the  old  forty-seventh  regiment, 
now  settled  in  that  province  ;  at  the  very  time  when 


THE    KING    AND    THE    NATION    IN    SUSPENSE.  283 

its  convention,  which  met  on  the  third  of  April,  were  CHAP. 
expressing  a  perfect  agreement  with  the  general  con-  ^^> 


gress  ;  and  were  heartily  seconded  by  its  assembly. 

New  York  was  the  pivot  of  the  policy  of  minis-  10. 
ters.  The  defection  of  its  assembly  from  the  acts  of 
the  general  congress  was  accepted  as  conclusive  proof 
that  the  province  would  adhere  to  the  king.  But  if 
Kivington's  gazette  quoted  texts  of  Scripture  in 
favor  of  passive  obedience,  Holt's  paper  replied  by 
other  texts  and  examples.  The  New  York  mer-  April 
chants  who  furnished  supplies  to  the  British  army  at 
Boston,  were  denounced  at  the  liberty  pole  as  enemies 
to  the  country.  When  Sears,  who  moved  that  every 
man  should  provide  himself  with  four  and  twenty 
rounds,  was  carried  before  the  mayor  and  refused 
to  give  bail,  he  was  liberated  on  his  way  to  prison, 
and  with  flying  colors,  a  crowd  of  friends,  and  loud 
huzzas  for  him  and  for  Macdougall,  was  conducted 
through  Broadway  to  a  meeting  in  the  Fields.  If 
the  assembly,  by  a  majority  of  four,  refused  to  for- 
bid importations,  the  press  taunted  them  for  taking 
gifts,  and  when  they  would  have  permitted  a  ship  to 
discharge  its  cargo,  the  committee  laughed  at  their 
vote  and  enforced  the  association.  As  .they  refused 
to  choose  delegates  to  another  congress,  a  poll  was 
taken  throughout  the  city,  and  against  one  hundred 
and  sixty-three,  there  appeared  eight  hundred  and 
twenty-five  in  favor  of  being  represented.  The 
rural  counties  co-operated  with  the  city  ;  and  on 
the  twentieth  of  April,  forty-one  delegates  met  in  April 
convention,  chose  Philip  Livingston  unanimously 
their  president  ;  re-elected  all  their  old  members  to 
congress,  except  the  lukewarm  Isaac  Low  ;  and  unani- 


284  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  mously  added  five  others,  among  them  Philip  Schuy- 
— ^  ler,  George  Clinton,  and  Robert  R.  Livingston ;  not 
*°  nas^en  a  revolution,  but  to  "concert  measures  for 
the  preservation  of  American  rights,  and  for  the  res- 
toration of  harmony  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
colonies." 

This  happened  at  a  time  when  the  king  believed 
New  York  won  over  by  immunities  and  benefactions 
and  the  generals  who  were  on  the  point  of  sailing  were 
disputing  for  the  command  at  that  place.  "  Burgoyne 
would  best  manage  a  negotiation,"  said  the  king  ;  but 
Howe  would  not  resign  his  right  to  the  post  of  con- 
fidence. Vergennes  saw  things  just  as  they  were; 
the  British  ministry,  with  a  marvellous  blindness  that 
but  for  positive  evidence  would  be  incredible,  thought 
it  easy  to  subdue  Massachusetts,  and  corrupt  New 
York.  On  the  fifteenth  day  of  April,  letters  were 
written  to  Gage,  to  take  possession  of  every  colonial 
fort ;  to  seize  and  secure  all  military  stores  of  every 
kind,  collected  for  the  rebels ;  to  arrest  and  imprison 
all  such  as  should  be  thought  to  have  committed 
treason ;  to  repress  rebellion  by  force ;  to  make  the 
public  safety  the  first  object  of  consideration ;  to  sub- 
stitute more  coercive  measures  for  ordinary  forms  of 
proceeding,  without  pausing  "  to  require  the  aid  of  a 
civil  magistrate."  Thurlow  and  Wedderburn  had 
given  their  opinion  that  the  Massachusetts  congress 
was  a  treasonable  body.  The  power  of  pardon, 
which  was  now  conferred  on  the  general,  did  not  ex- 
tend to  the  president  of  "  that  seditious  meeting,"  nor 
to  "its  most  forward  members,"  who,  as  unfit  subjects 
for  the  king's  mercy,  were  to  be  brought  "  to  condign 
punishment "  by  prosecution  either  in  America  or  in 
England. 


THE    KING    AND    THE    NATION    IN    SUSPENSE.  285 

While  the  king,  through  Lord  Dartmouth,  con-  CHAP. 
fidently  issued  these  sanguinary  instructions  which  a  ^^ 
numerous  army  could  hardly  have  enforced,  four  of 
the  regiments  at  first  destined  to  Boston,  received  or- 
ders to  proceed  directly  to  New  York,  where  their 
presence  was  to  aid  the  progress  of  intrigue.  At  the 
same  time  the  "  Senegal "  carried  out  six  packages,  each 
containing  a  very  large  number  of  copies  of  "  An  ad- 
dress of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  America,"  written  in  the  blandest  terms  by 
Sir  John  Dalrymple  at  Lord  North's  request,  to  co- 
operate with  his  conciliatory  resolution. 

"  The  power  of  taxation  over  you,"  said  the  pam- 
phleteer, "  we  desire  to  throw  from  us  as  unworthy 
of  you  to  be  subject  to,  and  of  us  to  possess.  We 
wished  to  make  the  concession.  From  the  late  dif- 
ferences it  is  the  fault  of  us  both,  if  we  do  not  derive 
future  agreement  by  some  great  act  of  state.  Let  the 
colonies  make  the  first  advance ;  if  not,  parliament 
will  do  so  by  sending  a  commission  to  America,  The 
first  honor  will  belong  to  the  party  which  shall  first 
scorn  punctilio  in  so  noble  a  cause.  We  give  up  the 
disgraceful  and  odious  privilege  of  taxing  you.  As 
to  the  judges  dependent  on  the  king's  pleasure,  if 
you  suspect  us,  appoint  your  own  judges,  pay  them 
your  own  salaries.  If  we  are  wrong  in  thinking  your 
charters  formed  by  accident,  not  by  forethought,  let 
them  stand  as  they  are.  Continue  to  share  the 
liberty  of  England.  With  such  sentiments  of  kind- 
ness in  our  breasts,  we  cannot  hear  without  the 
deepest  concern  a  charge,  that  a  system  has  been 
formed  to  enslave  you  by  means  of  parliament." 

The  mild  and  affectionate  language  of  this  pam- 


286  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  phlet,  composed  for  the  ministers,  printed  at  the  pub- 
— , — '*  He  cost,  and  sent  out  by  public  authority  to  be  widely 
I77.?'  distributed,  formed  a  strange  contrast  to  that  written 
by  Samuel  Johnson  for  England,  and  clashed  discord- 
antly with  the  vengeful  orders  transmitted  to  Bos- 
ton. Yet  Lord  North  was  false  only  as  he  was 
weak  and  uncertain.  He  really  wished  to  concede 
and  conciliate,  but  he  had  not  force  enough  to  come 
to  a  clear  understanding  even  with  himself.  When 
he  encountered  the  opposition  in  the  house  of 
commons,  he  sustained  his  administration  by  speak- 
ing confidently  for  vigorous  measures;  when  alone 
his  heart  sank  within  him  from  dread  of  civil  war. 

The  remonstrance  and  memorial  of  the  assembly 
of  New  York,  which  Burke,  their  agent,  presented  to 
May.   parliament  on  the  fifteenth  of  May,  was  rejected,  be- 
'     cause  they  questioned  the  right  of  parliament  to  tax 
America.     Three  days  later,  Lord  North  avowed  the 
orders  for  raising  Canadian  regiments  of  French  Pa- 
pists;   "however,"  he  continued,  "the  dispute  with 
America  is   not  so  alarming  as  some  people  appre- 
hend.   I  have  not  the  least  doubt  it  will  end  speedily, 
happily,  and  without  bloodshed." 

May  On  the  twenty-third  of  May,  secret  advices  from 
Philadelphia  confirmed  Dartmouth  and  the  king  in 
their  confidence,  that  North's  conciliatory  resolution 
"would  remove  all  obstacles  to  the  restoration -of 
public  tranquillity,"  through  "the  moderation  and 
loyal  disposition  of  the  assembly  of  New  York."  The 
king,  in  proroguing  parliament  on  the  twenty-sixth, 
no  longer  introduced  the  rebel  people  of  Massachu- 
setts, but  spoke  only  of  "  his  subjects  in  America, 
whose  wishes  were  to  be  gratified  and  apprehensions 


THE    KING   AND    THE    NATION    IN    SUSPENSE.  287 

removed  as  far  as  the  constitution  would  allow."   The  CHAP. 
court  gazette  of  the  day  was  equally  moderate.     The  —  ^ 


members   of   parliament   dispersed,   and   as  yet  no 
tidings  came  from  the  colonies  of  a  later  date  than     27. 
the  middle  of  April.    All  America,  from  Lake  Cham- 
plain  to  the  Altamaha  ;   all  Europe,  Madrid,  Paris,  %     ' 
Amsterdam,  Vienna,  hardly  less  than  London,  were 
gazing   with  expectation  towards  the   little  villages 
that  lay  around  Boston. 


CHAPTEE    XXVII. 


LEXINGTON. 

APRIL  19,  1775. 
CHAP.  ON  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which  the  provincial 

XXVII    ' 

— . — '  congress  of  Massachusetts  adjourned,  Gage  took  the 
1775.  light  infantry  and  grenadiers  off  duty,  and  secretly 
prepared  an  expedition  to  destroy  the  colony's  stores 
at  Concord.  But  the  attempt  had  for  several  weeks 
been  expected;  a  strict  watch  had  been  kept;  and 
signals  were  concerted  to  announce  the  first  movement 
of  troops  for  the  country.  Samuel  Adams  and  Han- 
cock, who  had  not  yet  left  Lexington  for  Philadel- 
phia, received  a  timely  message  from  Warren,  and  in 
consequence,  the  committee  of  safety  removed  a  part 
of  the  public  stores  and  secreted  the  cannon. 

On  Tuesday  the  eighteenth,  ten  or  more  sergeants 
in  disguise  dispersed  themselves  through  Cambridge 
and  further  west,  to  intercept  all  communication.  In 
the  following  night,  the  grenadiers  and  light  infantry, 
not  less  than  eight  hundred  in  number,  the  flower  of 
the  army  at  Boston,  commanded  by  the  incompetent 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Smith,  crossed  in  the  boats  of 


LEXINGTON.  289 

the  transport  ships  from  the  foot  of  the  common  to  CHAP. 
East  Cambridge.    There  they  received  a  day's  pro- 
visions, and  near  midnight,  after  wading  through  wet 
marshes,  that  are  now  covered  by  a  stately  town,  they 
took  the  road  through  West  Cambridge  to  Concord. 

"  They  will  miss  their  aim,"  said  one  of  a  party 
who  observed  their  departure.  "  What  aim  ? "  asked 
Lord  Percy,  who  overheard  the  remark.  "  Why, 
the  cannon  at  Concord,'1  was  the  answer.  Percy 
hastened  to  Gage,  who  instantly  directed  that  no  one 
should  be  suffered  to  leave  the  town.  But  Warren 
had.  already,  at  ten  o'clock,  despatched  William 
Dawes  through  Roxbury  to  Lexington,  and  at  the 
same  time  desired  Paul  Revere  to  set  off  by  way  of 
Charlestown. 

Revere  stopped  only  to  engage  a  friend  to  raise 
the  concerted  signals,  and  five  minutes  before  the 
sentinels  received  the  order  to  prevent  it,  two  friends 
rowed  him  past  the  Somerset  man  of  war  across 
Charles  river.  All  was  still,  as  suited  the  hour.  The 
ship  was  winding  with  the  young  flood ;  the  waning 
moon  just  peered  above  a  clear  horizon;  while  from 
a  couple  of  lanterns  in  the  tower  of  the  North  Church, 
the  beacon  streamed  to  the  neighboring  towns,  as  fast 
as  light  could  travel. 

A  little  beyond  Charlestown  Neck,  Revere  was 
intercepted  by  two  British  officers  on  horseback; 
but  being  himself  well  mounted,  he  turned  suddenly, 
and  leading  one  of  them  into  a  clay  pond,  escaped 
from  the  other  by  the  road  to  Medford.  As  he 
passed  on,  he  waked  the  captain  of  the  minute  men 
of  that  town,  and  continued  to  rouse  almost  every 
house  on  the  way  to  Lexington. 

VOL.     VII.  25 


290  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.         The  troops  had  not  advanced  far,  when  the  firing 

XXVII 

^v^  of  guns  and  ringing  of  bells  announced  that  their  ex- 
LApril  petition  had  been  heralded  before  them;  and  Smith 
19-     sent  back  to  demand  a  reenforcement. 

On  the  morning  of  the  nineteenth  of  April,  be- 
tween the  hours  of  twelve  and  one,  the  message  from 
Warren  reached  Adams  and  Hancock,  who  divined 
at  once  the  object  of  the  expedition.  Revere,  there- 
fore, and  Dawes,  joined  by  Samuel  Prescott,  "  a  high 
son  of  liberty "  from  Concord,  rode  forward,  calling 
up  the  inhabitants  as  they  passed  along,  till  in  Lin- 
coln they  fell  upon  a  party  of  British  officers.  Re- 
vere and  Dawes  were  seized  and  taken  back  to  Lex- 
ington, where  they  were  released  ;  but  Prescott 
leaped  over  a  low  stone  wall,  and  galloped  on  for 
Concord. 

There  at  about  two  in  the  morning,  a  peal  from  the 
belfry  of  the  meeting-house  brought  hastily  togeth- 
er the  inhabitants  of  the  place.  They  came  forth, 
young  and  old,  with  their  firelocks,  ready  to  make 
good  the  resolute  words  of  their  town  debates. 
Among  the  most  alert  was  William  Emerson  the 
minister,  with  gun  in  hand,  his  powder-horn  and 
pouch  for  balls  slung  over  his  shoulder.  By  his  ser- 
mons and  his  prayers,  he  had  so  hallowed  the  en- 
thusiasm of  his  flock,  that  they  held  the  defence  of 
their  liberties  a  part  of  their  covenant  with  God ;  his 
presence  with  arms,  proved  his  -sincerity  and  strength- 
ened their  sense  of  duty. 

From  daybreak  to  sunrise,  the  summons  ran  from 
house  to  house  through  Acton.  Express  messengers 
and  the  call  of  minute  men  spread  widely  the  alarm. 
How  children  trembled  as  they  were  scared  out  of 


LEXINGTON.  291 


sleep  by  the  cries  !  How  wives  with  heaving  breasts, 
bravely  seconded  their  husbands  ;  how  the  country- 
men,  forced  suddenly  to  arm,  without  guides  or  coun- 
sellors,  took  instant  counsel  of  their  courage.  The  19- 
mighty  chorus  of  voices  rose  from  the  scattered  farm- 
houses, and  as  it  were  from  the  very  ashes  of  the  dead. 
Come  forth,  champions  of  liberty;  now  free  your  coun- 
try; protect  your  sons  and  daughters,  your  wives  and 
homesteads  ;  rescue  the  houses  of  the  God  of  your 
fathers,  the  franchises  handed  down  from  your  an- 
cestors. Now  all  is  at  stake  ;  the  battle  is  for  all. 

^Lexington,  in  1775,  may  have  had  seven  hundred 
inhabitants  ;  forming  one  parish,  and  having  for  their 
minister  the  learned  and  fervent  Jonas  Clark,  the 
bold  inditer  of  patriotic  state  papers  that  may  yet  be 
read  on  their  town  records.  In  December,  1772, 
they  had  instructed  their  representative  to  demand 
"  a  radical  and  lasting  redress  of  their  grievances, 
for  not  through  their  neglect  should  the  people  be 
enslaved."  A  year  later,  they  spurned  the  use  of 
tea.  In  1774,  at  various  town  meetings,  they  voted 
"  to  increase  their  stock  of  ammunition,"  "  to  encour- 
age military  discipline,  and  to  put  themselves  in  a 
posture  of  defence  against  their  enemies."  In  De- 
cember, they  distributed  to  "the  train  band  and 
alarm  list"  arms  and  ammunition,  and  resolved  to 
"  supply  the  training  soldiers  with  bayonets." 

At  two  in  the  morning,  under  the  eye  of  the  min- 
ister, and  of  Hancock  and  Adams,  Lexington  common 
was  alive  with  the  minute  men  ;  and  not  with  them 
only,  but  with  the  old  men  also,  who  were  exempts, 
except  in  case  of  immediate  danger  to  the  town.  The 
roll  was  called,  and  of  militia  and  alarm  men,  about 


292  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  one  hundred  and  thirty  answered  to  their  names.    The 
-^Y— '  captain,  John  Parker,  ordered  every  one  to  load  with 
April    P°w(ler  and  ball,  but  to  take  care  not  to  be  the  first 
19-     to  fire.      Messengers,  sent  to   look  for  the   British 
regulars,  reported  that  there  were  no  signs  of  their 
approach.     A  watch  was  therefore  set,  and  the  com- 
pany dismissed  with  orders  to  come  together  at  beat 
of  drum.     Some  went  to  their  own  homes ;  some  to 
the  tavern,  near  the  southeast  corner  of  the  common. 
Adams   and   Hancock,   whose   proscription   had 
already  been  divulged,   and  whose  seizure  was  be- 
lieved to  be  intended,  were  compelled  by  persuaSon 
to  retire  towards  Woburn. 

The  last  stars  were  •  vanishing  from  night,  when 
the  foremost  party,  led  by  Pitcairn,  a  major  of 
marines,  was  discovered,  advancing  quickly  and  in 
silence.  Alarm  guns  were  fired,  and  the  drums  beat, 
not  a  call  to  village  husbandmen  only,  but  the  reveille 
to  humanity.  Less  than  seventy,  perhaps  less  than 
sixty,  obeyed  the  summons,  and  in  sight  of  half  as 
many  boys  and  unarmed  men,  were  paraded  in  two 
ranks,  a  few  rods  north  of  the  meeting-house. 

How  often  in  that  building  had  they,  with  re- 
newed professions  of  their  faith,  looked  up  to  God  as 
the  stay  of  their  fathers,  and  the  protector  of  their 
privileges !  How  often  on  that  village  green,  hard  by 
the  burial  place  of  their  forefathers,  had  they  pledged 
themselves  to  each  other  to  combat  manfully  for  their 
birthright  inheritance  of  liberty !  There  they  now 
stood  side  by  side,  under  the  provincial  banner,  with 
arms  in  their  hands,  silent  and  fearless,  willing  to 
fight  for  their  privileges,  scrupulous  not  to  begin 
civil  war,  and  as  yet  unsuspicious  of  immediate  dan- 


LEXINGTON.  293 

ger.     The  ground  on  which  they  trod  was  the  altar  CHAP. 
of  freedom,  and  they  were  to  furnish  its  victims. 


The  British  van,  hearing  the  drum  and  the  alarm 
guns,  halted  to  load  ;  the  remaining  companies  came  19- 
up  ;  and  at  half  an  hour  before  sunrise,  the  advance 
party  hurried  forward  at  double  quick  time,  almost 
upon  a  run,  closely  followed  by  the  grenadiers.  Pit- 
cairn  rode  in  front,  and  when  within  five  or  six  rods 
of  the  minute  men,  cried  out  :  "  Disperse,  ye  villains, 
ye  rebels,  disperse  ;  lay  down  your  arms  ;  why  don't 
you  lay  down  your  arms  and  disperse  ?  "  The  main 
part  of  the  countrymen  stood  motionless  in  the  ranks, 
witnesses  against  aggression  ;  too  few  to  resist,  too 
brave  to  fly.  At  this  Pitcairn  discharged  a  pistol, 
and  with  a  loud  voice  cried,  "  Fire."  The  order  was 
instantly  followed,  first  by  a  few  guns,  which  did  no 
execution,  and  then  by  a  heavy,  close,  and  deadly 
discharge  of  musketry. 

In  the  disparity  of  numbers,  the  common  was  a 
field  of  murder,  not  of  battle  ;  Parker,  therefore, 
ordered  his  men  to  disperse.  Then,  and  not  till 
then,  did  a  few  of  them,  on  their  own  impulse,  re- 
turn the  British  fire.  These  random  shots  of  fugi- 
tives or  dying  men  did  no  harm,  except  that  Pit- 
cairn's  horse  was  perhaps  grazed,  and  a  private  of 
the  tenth  light  infantry  was  touched  slightly  in  the 
leg. 

Jonas  Parker,  the  strongest  and  best  wrestler  in 
Lexington,  had  promised  never  to  run  from  British 
troops  ;  and  he  kept  his  vow.  A  wound  brought 
him  on  his  knees.  Having  discharged  his  gun,  he 
was  preparing  to  load  it  again,  when  as  sound  a  heart 
as  ever  throbbed  for  freedom  was  stilled  by  a  bayo- 

VOL.   VII.  25* 


294  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  net,  and  he  lay  on  the  post  which  he  took  at  the 
— v—  morning's  drum  beat.  So  fell  Isaac  Muzzey,  and  so 
^e(^  tj^e  aoe^  Robert  Munroe,  the  same  who  in  1758 
had  been  an  ensign  at  Louisburg.  Jonathan  Har- 
rington, junior,  was  struck  in  front  of  his  own  house 
on  the  north  of  the  common.  His  wife  was  at  the 
window  as  he  fell.  With  the  blood  gushing  from  his 
breast,  he  rose  in  her  sight,  tottered,  fell  again,  then 
crawled  on  hands  and  knees  towards  his  dwelling ; 
she  ran  to  meet  him,  but  only  reached  him  as  he  ex- 
pired on  their  threshold.  Caleb  Harrington,  who 
had  gone  into  the  meeting-house  for  powder,  was 
shot  as  he  came  out.  Samuel  Hadley  and  John 
Brown  were  pursued,  and  killed  after  they  had  left 
the  green.  Asahel  Porter,  of  Woburn,  who  had  been 
taken  prisoner  by  the  British  on  the  march,  endeav- 
oring to  escape,  was  shot  within  a  few  rods  of  the 
common. 

Day  came  in  all  the  beauty  of  an  early  spring. 
The  trees  were  budding  ;  the  grass  growing  rankly  a 
full  month  before  its  time ;  the  blue  bird  and  the 
robin  gladdening  the  genial  season,  and  calling  forth 
the  beams  of  the  sun  which  on  that  morning  shone 
with  the  warmth  of  summer  ;  but  distress  and  horror 
gathered  over  the  inhabitants  of  the  peaceful  town. 
There  on  the  green,  lay  in  death  the  gray-haired  and 
th(3  young ;  the  grassy  field  was  red  "  with  the  inno- 
cent blood  of  their  brethren  slain,"  crying  unto  God 
for  vengeance  from  the  ground. 

Seven  of  the  men  of  Lexington  were  killed  ;  nine 
wounded;  a  quarter  part  of  all  who  stood  in  arms 
on  the  green.  These  are  the  village  heroes,  who  were 
more  than  of  noble  blood,  proving  by  their  spirit  that 


LEXINGTON.  295 

they  were  of  a  race  divine.  They  gave  their  lives  CHAP. 
in  testimony  to  the  rights  of  mankind,  bequeathing  — ^ 
to  their  country  an  assurance  of  success  in  the  mighty  l^^\ 
struggle  which  they  began.  Their  names  are  had  in  19- 
grateful  remembrance,  and  the  expanding  millions 
of  their  countrymen  renew  and  multiply  their  praise 
from  generation  to  generation.  They  fulfilled  their 
duty  not  from  the  accidental  impulse  of  the  moment ; 
their  action  was  the  slowly  ripened  fruit  of  Provi- 
dence and  of  time.  The  light  that  led  them  on,  was 
combined  of  rays  from  the  whole  history  of  the  race ; 
from  the  traditions  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  gray  of  the 
world's  morning ;  from  the  heroes  and  sages  of  repub- 
lican Greece  and  Rome ;  from  the  example  of  Him 
who  laid  down  his  life  on  the  cross  for  the  life  of 
humanity ;  from  the  religious  creed  which  proclaimed 
the  divine  presence  in  man,  and  on  this  truth  as  in  a 
life-boat,  floated  the  liberties  of  nations  over  the  dark 
flood  of  the  middle  ages ;  from  the  customs  of  the 
Germans  transmitted  out  of  their  forests  to  the  coun- 
cils of  Saxon  England ;  from  the  burning  faith  and 
courage  of  Martin  Luther ;  from  trust  in  the  inevita- 
ble universality  of  God's  sovereignty  as  taught  by 
Paul  of  Tarsus,  and  Augustine,  through  Calvin  and 
the  divines  of  New  England ;  from  the  avenging 
fierceness  of  the  Puritans,  who  dashed  down  the 
mitre  on  the  ruins  of  the  throne ;  from  the  bold  dis- 
sent and  creative  self  assertion  of  the  earliest  emi- 
grants to  Massachusetts ;  from  the  statesmen  who 
made,  and  the  philosophers  who  expounded,  the 
revolution  of  England;  from  the  liberal  spirit  and 
analyzing  inquisitiveness  of  the  eighteenth  century ; 
from  the  cloud  of  witnesses  of  all  the  ages  to  the 


296  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  reality  and  the  rightfulness  of  human  freedom.     All 
— r—l'  the  centuries  bowed  themselves  from  the  recesses  of 
April   a  Pas*  e^ern^y  t°  cheer  in  their  sacrifice  the  lowly 
!9-     men  who  proved  themselves  worthy  of  their  fore- 
runners, and  whose  children  rise  up  and  call  them 
blessed. 

Heedless  of  his  own  danger,  Samuel  Adams,  with 
the  voice  of  a  prophet,  exclaimed,  "  Oh  !  what  a  glo- 
rious morning  is  this  ! "  for  he  saw  that  his  country's 
independence  was  rapidly  hastening  on,  and,  like 
Columbus  in  the  tempest,  knew  that  the  storm  did 
but  bear  him  the  more  swiftly  towards  the  undis- 
covered world. 


CHAPTEK  XXVIII. 

TO    CONCORD    AND    BACK    TO    BOSTON. 

APRIL  NINETEENTH,  1775. 

THE  British  troops  drew  up  on  the  village  green,  CHAP. 
fired  a  volley,  huzzaed  thrice  by  way  of  triumph,  and  5^ 
after  a  halt  of  less  than  thirty  minutes,  marched  on  for  V7?/ 
Concord.     There,  in  the  morning  hours,  children  and      19. 
women  fled  for  shelter  to  the  hills  and  the  woods, 
and  men  were  hiding  what  was  left  of  cannon  a,nd 
military  stores. 

The  minute  companies  and  militia  formed  on  the 
usual  parade,  over  which  the  congregation  of  the 
town,  for  near  a  century  and  a  half,  had  passed  on 
every  day  of  public  worship ;  the  freemen  to  every 
town  meeting ;  and  lately  the  patriot  members  of  the 
provincial  congress  twice  a  day  to  their  little  senate 
house.  Near  that  spot  Winthrop,  the  father  of 
Massachusetts,  had  given  counsel  ;  and  Eliot,  the 
apostle  of  the  Indians,  had  spoken  words  of  be- 
nignity and  wisdom.  The  people  of  Concord,  of 
whom  about  two  hundred  appeared  in  arms  on  that 
day,  were  unpretending  men,  content  in  their  humil- 


298  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ity ;  their  energy  was  derived  from  their  sense  of  the 

' — « —  divine  power.     This  looking  to  God  as  their  sover- 

lAprU   ei&n>  forought  the  fathers  to  their  pleasant  valley ; 

19-     this  controlled  the  loyalty  of  the  sons ;  and  this  has 

made  the  name  of  Concord  venerable  throughout  the 

world. 

The  alarm  company  of  the  place  rallied  near  the 
liberty  pole  on  the  hill,  to  the  right  of  the  Lexington 
road,  in  the  front  of  the  meeting-house.  They  went 
to  the  perilous  duties  of  the  day,  u  with  seriousness 
and  acknowledgment  of  God,"  as  though  they  were 
to  be  engaged  in  acts  of  worship.  The  minute  com- 
pany of  Lincoln,  and  a  few  from  Acton,  pressed  in 
at  an  early  hour ;  but  the  British,  as  they  approached, 
were  seen  to  be  four  times  as  numerous  as  the  Ameri- 
cans. The  latter,  therefore,  retreated,  first  to  an 
eminence  eighty  rods  further  north,  then  across  the 
Concord  river  by  the  North  bridge,  till  just  beyond 
it,  by  a  back  road  they  gained  high  ground,  about  a 
mile  from  the  centre  of  the  town.  There  they  waited 
for  aid. 

About  seven  o'clock,  the  British  marched  with 
rapid  step  under  the  brilliant  sunshine  into  Concord, 
the  light  infantry  along  the  hills,  and  the  grenadiers 
in  the  lower  road.  Left  in  undisputed  possession  of 
the  hamlet,  they  made  search  for  stores.  To  this 
end,  one  small  party  was  sent  to  the  South  bridge 
over  Concord  river ;  and  of  six  companies  under 
Captain  Laurie,  three,  comprising  a  hundred  soldiers 
or  more,  were  stationed  as  a  guard  at  the  North 
bridge,  while  three  others  advanced  two  miles  fur- 
ther, to  the  residence  of  Barrett,  the  highest  military 
officer  of  the  neighborhood,  where  arms  were  thought 


TO    CONCORD    AND    BACK    TO    BOSTON.  299 

to   have   been    concealed.      But    they   found   there  CHAP. 
nothing  to  destroy  except  some  carriages  for  cannon.  ^^^ 
His  wife  at  their  demand  gave  them  refreshment ;  but   April 
refused  pay,  saying :    "  We  -  are  commanded  to  feed 
our  enemy,  if  he  hunger." 

At  daybreak,  the  minute  men  of  Acton  crowded 
at  the  drumbeat  to  the  house  of  Isaac  Davis,  their 
captain,  who  "  made  haste  to  be  ready."  Just  thirty 
years  old,  the  father  of  four  little  ones,  stately  in  his 
person,  a  man  of  few  words,  earnest  even  to  solem- 
nity, he  parted  from  his  wife,  saying,  "  Take  good 
care  of  the  children,"  as  though  he  had  foreseen  that 
his  own  death  was  near ;  and  while  she  gazed  after 
him  with  resignation,  he  led  off  his  company  to  the 
scene  of  danger. 

Between  nine  and  ten,  the  number  of  Americans 
on  the  rising  ground  above  Concord  bridge  had  in- 
creased to  more  than  four  hundred.  Of  these  there 
were  twenty-five  minute  men  from  Bedford,  with 
Jonathan  Wilson  for  their  captain ;  others  were  from 
Westford,  among  them  Thaxter,  a  preacher;  others 
from  Littleton,  from  Carlisle,  and  from  Chelmsford. 
The  Acton  company  came  last,  and  formed  on  the 
right.  The  whole  was  a  gathering  not  so  much  of 
officers  and  soldiers,  as  of  brothers  and  equals;  of 
whom  every  one  was  a  man  well  known  in  his  vil- 
lage, observed  in  the  meeting-house  on  Sundays, 
familiar  at  town  meetings,  and  respected  as  a  free- 
holder or  a  freeholder's  son. 

Near  the  base  of  the  hill,  Concord  river  flows 
languidly  in  a  winding  channel,  and  was  approached 
by  a  causeway  over  the  wet  ground  of  its  left  bank. 
The  by-road  from  the  hill  on  which  the  Americans 


300  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


mra  ka<*  rallied>  ran  southerly  till  it  met  the  causeway  at 

—  •  —  right  angles.    The  Americans  saw  before  them  within 

April'  gunshot   British   troops  holding  possession  of  their 

19-     bridge;   and  in  the   distance  a  still  larger  number 

occupying  their  town,  which,  from  the  rising  smoke, 

seemed  to  have  been  set  on  fire. 

In  Concord  itself,  Pitcairn  had  fretted  and  fumed 
with  oaths  and  curses  at  the  tavern-keeper  for  shut- 
ting against  him  the  doors  of  the  inn,  and  exulted 
over  the  discovery  of  two  twenty-four  pounders  in 
the  tavern  yard,  as  though  they  reimbursed  the  ex- 
pedition. These  were  spiked  ;  sixty  barrels  of  flour 
were  broken  in  pieces,  but  so  imperfectly,  that  after- 
wards half  the  flour  was  saved  ;  five  hundred  pounds 
of  ball  were  thrown  into  a  mill-pond.  The  liberty 
pole  and  several  carriages  for  artillery  were  burned  ; 
and  the  court  house  'took  fire,  though  the  fire  was  put 
out.  Private  dwellings  were  rifled  ;  but  this  slight 
waste  of  public  stores  was  all  the  advantage  for 
which  Gage  precipitated  a  civil  war. 

The  Americans  had  as  yet  received  only  uncer- 
tain rumors  of  the  morning's  events  at  Lexington. 
At  the  sight  of  fire  in  the  village,  the  impulse  seized 
them  "  to  march  into  the  town  for  its  defence."  But 
were  they  not  subjects  of  the  British  king  ?  Had 
not  the  troops  come  out  in  obedience  to  consti- 
tuted and  acknowledged  authorities  ?  Was  resist- 
ance practicable  ?  Was  it  justifiable  ?  By  whom 
could  it  be  authorized  ?  No  union  had  been  formed  ; 
no  independence  proclaimed  ;  no  war  declared.  The 
husbandmen  and  mechanics  who  then  stood  on  the 
hillock  by  Concord  river,  were  called  on  to  act,  and 
their  action  would  be  war  or  peace,  submission  or 


TO  CONCORD  AND  BACK  TO  BOSTON.  301 

independence.     Had  they  doubted,  they  must  have  CHAP. 
despaired. 

But  duty  is  bolder  than  theory,  more  confident  12£& 
than  the  understanding,  older  and  more  imperative  19- 
than  speculative  science  ;  existing  from  eternity,  and 
recognised  in  its  binding  force  from  the  first  morning 
of  creation.  Prudent  statesmanship  would  have  asked 
anxiously  for  time  to  ponder,  and  would  have  missed 
the  moment  for  decision  by  delay.  Wise  philosophy 
would  have  compared  the  systems  of  government, 
and  would  have  lost  from  hesitation  the  glory  of 
opening  a  new  era  on  mankind.  The  humble  train- 
bands at  Concord  acted,  and  God  was  with  them. 

"  I  never  heard  from  any  person  the  least  ex- 
pression of  a  wish  for  a  separation,"  Franklin,  not 
long  before,  had  said  to  Chatham.  In  October, 
1774,  Washington  wrote,  "No  such  thing  as  inde- 
pendence is  desired  by  any  thinking  man  in  Amer- 
ica." "Before  the  nineteenth  of  April,  1775,"  relates 
Jefferson,  "  I  never  had  heard  a  whisper  of  a  disposi- 
tion to  separate  from  Great  Britain."  Just  thirty- 
seven  days  had  passed,  since  John  Adams  in  Boston 
published  to  the  world :  "  That  there  are  any  who 
pant  after  independence,  is  the  greatest  slander  on 
the  province." 

The  American  revolution  did  not  proceed  from 
precarious  intentions.  It  grew  out  of  the  soul  of  the 
people,  and  was  an  inevitable  result  of  a  living  affec- 
tion for  freedom,  which  actuated  harmonious  effort  as 
certainly  as  the  beating  of  the  heart  sends  warmth 
and  color  and  beauty  to  the  system.  The  rustic 
heroes  of  that  hour  obeyed  the  simplest,  the  highest, 
and  the  surest  instincts,  of  which  the  seminal  principle 

VOL.    TIL  26 


302  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  existed  in  all  their  countrymen.     From  necessity  they 
— . —  were  impelled  by  a  strong  endeavor  towards  inde- 
lAp7rfl'  Pen^ence  an^   self-direction;  this  day  revealed  the 
19.     plastic  will  which  was  to  attract  the  elements  of  a  na- 
tion to  a  centre,  and  by  an  innate  force  to  shape  its 
constitution. 

The  officers,  meeting  in  front  of  their  men,  spoke 
a  few  words  with  one  another,  and  went  back  to  their 
places.  Barrett,  the  colonel,  on  horseback  in  the  rear, 
then  gave, the  order  to  advance,  but  not  to  fire  unless 
attacked.  The  calm  features  of  Isaac  Davis,  of  Ac- 
ton, became  changed ;  the  town  schoolmaster,  who 
was  present,  could  never  afterwards  find  words  strong 
enough  to  express,  how  his  face  reddened  at  the  word 
of  command.  "  I  have  not  a  man  that  is  afraid 
to  go,"  said  Davis,  looking  at  the  men  of  Acton; 
and  drawing  his  sword,  he  cried,  "  March."  His 
company,  being  on  the  right,  led  the  way  towards 
the  bridge,  he  himself  at  their  head,  and  by  his  side 
Major  John  Buttrick,  of  Concord,  with  John  Rob- 
inson, of  Westford,  lieutenant  colonel  in  Prescott's 
regiment,  but  on  this  day  a  volunteer  without  com- 
mand. 

Thus  these  three  men  walked  together  in  front, 
followed  by  minute  men  and  militia,  in  double  file, 
trailing  arms.  They  went  down  the  hillock,  entered 
the  by-road,  came  to  its  angle  with  the  main  road, 
and  there  turned  into  the  causeway  that  led  straight 
to  the  bridge.  The  British  began  to  take  up  the 
planks ;  the  Americans,  to  prevent  it,  quickened 
their  step.  At  this,  the  British  fired  one  or  two 
shots  up  the  river ;  then  another,  by  which  Luther 
Blanchard  and  Jonas  Brown  were  wounded.  A  vol- 


TO    CONCORD    AND    BACK    TO    BOSTON.  303 

ley  followed,  and  Isaac  Davis  and  Abner  Hosmer,  CHAJPL 
the  latter  a  son  of  the  deacon  of  the  Acton  church,  — > — 
fell  dead.     Three  hours '  before,  Davis  had  bid  his   j^g 
wife  and  children  farewell.     That  afternoon,  he  was     19- 
carried  home  and  laid  in  her  bedroom.     His  counte- 
nance was  little  altered  and  pleasant  in  death.     The 
bodies  of  two  others  of  his  company  who  were  slain 
that  day  were  brought  also  to  her  house,  and  the 
three  were  followed  to  the  village  graveyard  by  a 
concourse  of  the  neighbors  from  miles  around.     God 
gave  her  length  of  days  in  the  land  which  his  generous 
self-devotion  assisted  to  redeem.     She  live^d  to  see 
her  country  touch  the  gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Pacific, 
and  when  it  was  grown  great  in  numbers,  wealth, 
and  power,  the  United  States  in  congress  paid  honors 
to   her   husband's   martyrdom,    and    comforted   her 
under  the  double  burden  of  sorrow  and  more  than 
ninety  years. 

As  the  British  fired,  Emerson,  who  was  looking 
on  from  his  chamber  window  near  the  bridge,  was 
for  one  moment  uneasy,  lest  the  fire  should  not  be 
returned.  It  was  only  for  a  moment ;  Buttrick, 
leaping  into  the  air,  and  at  the  same  time  partially 
turning  round,  cried  aloud,  as  if  with  his  country's 
voice,  "  Fire,  fellow-soldiers,  for  God's  sake  fire ; " 
and  the  cry,  "fire,  fire,  fire,"  ran  from  lip  to  lip. 
Two  of  the  British  fell ;  several  were  wounded.  In 
two  minutes,  all  was  hushed.  The  British  retreated 
in  disorder  towards  their  main  body ;  the  country- 
men were  left  in  possession  of  the  bridge.  This  is  the 
world  renowned  BATTLE  or  CONCOED  ;  more  eventful 
than  Agincourt  or  Blenheim. 

The  Americans  had  acted  from  impulse,  and  stood 


304  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

xxvra  astonished  at  what  they  had  done.     They  made  no 
— • —  pursuit   and  did  no  further  harm,  except   that  one 
April*  wounded  soldier,  attempting  to  rise  as  if  to  escape, 
]9<     was  struck   on   the  head   by  a  young   man  with  a 
natchet.      The  party  at  Barrett's  might  have  been 
cut  off,  but  was  not  molested.    As  the  Sudbury  com- 
pany, commanded  by  the  brave  Nixon,  passed  near 
the  South  bridge,  Josiah  Haynes,  then  eighty  years  of 
age,  deacon  of  the  Sudbury  church,  urged  an  attack 
on  the  British  party  stationed  there ;  his  advice  was 
rejected  by  his  fellow-soldiers  as  premature,  but  the 
company  an  which  he  served  proved  among  the  most 
alert  during  the  rest  of  the  day. 

In  the  town  of  Concord,  Smith,  for  half  an  hour, 
showed  by  marches  and  countermarches,  his  uncer- 
tainty of  purpose.  At  last,  about  noon,  he  left  the 
town,  to  retreat  the  way  he  came,  along  the  crooked 
and  hilly  road  that  wound  through  forests  and 
thickets.  The  minute  men  and  militia,  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  fight,  ran  over  the  hills  opposite 
the  battle  field  into  the  east  quarter  of  the  town, 
crossed  the  pasture  known  as  the  "  Great  Fields," 
and  acting  each  from  his  own  impulse,  placed  them- 
selves in  ambush  a  little  to  the  eastward  of  the  vil- 
lage, near  the  junction  of  the  Bedford  road.  There 
they  were  reenforced  by  men  who  were  coming  in 
from  all  around,  and  at  that  point  the  chase  of  tlje 
English  began. 

Among  the  foremost  were  the  minute  men  of 
Reading,  led  by  John  Brooks,  and  accompanied  by 
Foster  the  minister  of  Littleton  as  a  volunteer.  The 
company  of  Billerica,  whose  inhabitants,  in  their  just 
indignation  at  Nesbit  and  his  soldiers,  had  openly  re- 


TO    CONCORD    AND    BACK    TO    BOSTON.  305 

solved  to  "  use  a  different  style  from  that  of  petition  CHAP. 
and  complaint,"  came  down  from  the  north,  while  the  ^*^ 
East  Sudbury  company  appeared  on  the  south.     A   April 
little  below  the  Bedford  road,  at  Merriam's  corner, 
the  British  faced  about ;  but  after  a  sharp  encounter, 
in  which  several  of  them  were  killed,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  resume  their  retreat. 

At  the  high  land  in  Lincoln,  the  old  road  bent 
towards  the  north ;  just  where  great  trees  on  the  west, 
thickets  on  the  east,  and  stone  walls  in  every  direc- 
tion, offered  cover  to  the  pursuers.  The  men  from 
Woburn  came  up  in  great  numbers,  and  well  armed. 
Along  these  defiles,  eight  of  the  British  were  left. 
Here  Pitcairn  was  forced  to  quit  his  horse,  which 
was  taken  with  his  pistols  in  their  holsters.  A  little 
further  on,  Jonathan  Wilson,  captain  of  the  Bedford 
minute  men,  too  zealous  to  keep  on  his  guard,  was 
killed  by  a  flanking  party.  At  another  defile  in 
Lincoln,  the  minute  men  of  Lexington,  commanded 
by  John  Parker,  renewed  the  fight.  Every  piece  of 
wood,  every  rock  by  the  wayside,  served  as  a  lurk- 
ing-place. Scarce  ten  of  the  Americans  were  at  any 
time  seen  together ;  yet  the  hills  on  each  side  seemed 
to  the  British  to  swarm  with  "rebels,"  as  if  they  had 
dropped  from  the  clouds,  and  "  the  road  was  lined " 
by  an  un intermitted  fire  from  behind  stone  walls 
and  trees. 

At  first  the  invaders  moved  in  order;  as  they 
drew  near  Lexington,  their  flanking  parties  became 
ineffective  from  weariness ;  the  wounded  were  scarce 
able  to  get  forward.  In  the  west  of  Lexington,  as 
the  British  were  rising  Fiske's  hill,  a  sharp  contest 
ensued.  It  was  at  the  eastern  foot  of  the  same  hill, 

VOL.  vii.  26* 


306  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  that  James  Hay  ward,  son  of  the  deacon  of  Acton 
^-v-—  church,  encountered  a  regular,  and  both  at  the  same 
April  moment  fired ;  the  regular  was  instantly  killed,  James 
19-  Hayward  was  mortally  wounded.  A  little  further  on 
fell  the  octogenarian  Josiah  Haynes,  of  Sudbury,  who 
had  kept  pace  by  the  side  of  the  swiftest  in  the  pur- 
suit, with  a  rugged  valor  which  age  had  not  tempered. 
The  British  troops,  "greatly  exhausted  and  fa- 
tigued, and  having  expended  almost  all  their  ammuni- 
tion," began  to  run  rather  than  retreat  in  order.  The 
officers  vainly  attempted  to  stop  their  flight.  u  They 
were  driven  before  the  Americans  like  sheep."  At 
last,  about  two  in  the  afternoon,  after  they  had  hur- 
ried with  shameful  haste  through  the  middle  of  the 
town,  about  a  mile  below  the  field  of  the  morning's 
bloodshed,  the  officers  got  to  the  front,  and  by  menaces 
of  death,  began  to  form  them  under  a  very  heavy  fire. 
At  that  moment  Lord  Percy  came  in  sight  with 
the  first  brigade,  consisting  of  Welsh  fusiliers,  the 
fourth,  the  forty-seventh,  and  the  thirty- eighth  regi 
ments,  in  all  about  twelve  hundred  men,  with  two 
field  pieces.  Insolent  as  usual,  they  marched  out  of 
Boston  to  the  tune  of  Yankee  Doodle;  but  they 
grew  alarmed  at  finding  every  house  on  the  road 
deserted.  They  met  not  one  person  to  give  them 
tidings  of  the  party  whom  they  were  sent  to  rescue ; 
and  now  that  they  had  made  the  junction,  they  could 
think  only  of  their  own  safety. 

While  the  cannon  kept  the  Americans  at  bay, 
Percy  formed  his  detachment  into  a  square,  enclosing 
the  fugitives,  who  lay  down  for  rest  on  the  ground, 
"  their  tongues  hanging  out  of  their  mouths  like  those 
of  dogs  after  a  chase." 


TO  CONCORD  AND  BACK  TO  BOSTON.   .          307 

From  this  time  the  Americans  had  to  contend  CHAP. 
against  nearly  the  whole  of  the  British  army  in  Bos- 


ton.  Its  best  troops,  fully  two-thirds  of  its  whole 
number,  and  more  than  that  proportion  of  its  strength,  19- 
were  now  with  Percy.  And  yet  delay  was  sure  to 
prove  ruinous.  The  British  must  fly  speedily  and 
fleetly,  or  be  overwhelmed.  Two  wagons  sent  out 
to  them  with  supplies,  were  waylaid  and  captured 
by  Payson,  the  minister  of  Chelsea.  From  far  and 
wide  minute  men  were  gathering.  The  men  of  Ded- 
ham,  even  the  old  men,  received  their  minister's 
blessing  and  went  forth,  in  such  numbers  that  scarce 
one  male  between  sixteen  and  seventy  was  left  at 
home.  That  morning  William  Prescott  mustered  his 
regiment,  and  though  Pepperell  was  so  remote  that 
he  could  not  be  in  season  for  the  pursuit,  he  hastened 
down  with  five  companies  of  guards.  Before  noon,  a 
messenger  rode  at  full  speed  into  Worcester,  crying 
"To  arms;"  a  fresh  horse  was  brought,  and  the 
tidings  went  on  ;  while  the  minute  men  of  that  town, 
joining  hurriedly  on  the  common  in  a  fervent  prayer 
from  their  minister,  did  not  halt  even  for  rest  till 
they  reached  Cambridge. 

Aware  of  his  perilous  position,  Percy,  after  rest- 
ing but  half  an  hour,  renewed  the  retreat.  The  light 
infantry  marched  in  front,  the  grenadiers  next,  while 
the  first'  brigade,  which  now  furnished  the  very 
strong  flanking  parties,  brought  up  the  rear.  They 
were  exposed  to  a  fire  on  each  flank,  in  front  and 
from  behind.  The  Americans,  who  were  good  marks- 
men, would  lie  down  concealed  to  load  their  guns 
at  one  place,  and  discharge  them  at  another,  running 
from  front  to  flank,  and  from  flank  to  rear.  Rage 


308  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  and  revenge  and  shame  at  their  flight  led  the  regu- 
— . —  lars  to  plunder  houses  by  the  wayside,  to  destroy  in 
Ap7rii"  wantonness  windows  and  furniture,  to  set  fire  to  barns 
19-     and  houses. 

Beyond  Lexington  the  troops  were  attacked  by 
men  chiefly  from  Essex  and  the  lower  towns.  The 
fire  from  the  rebels  slackened,  till  they  approached 
West  Cambridge,  where  Joseph  Warren  and  William 
Heath,  both  of  the  committee  of  safety,  the  latter  a 
provincial  general  officer,  gave  for  a  moment  some 
little  appearance  of  organization  to  the  resistance,  and 
the  fight  grew  sharper  and  more  determined.  Here 
the  company  from  Daiivers,  which  made  a  breast- 
work of  a  pile  of  shingles,  lost  eight  men,  caught 
between  the  enemy's  flank  guard  and  main  body. 
Here,  too,  a  musket  ball  grazed  the  hair  of  Warren, 
whose  heart  beat  to  arms,  so  that  he  was  ever  in 
the  place  of  greatest  danger.  The  British  became 
more  and  more  "  exasperated ; "  and  indulged  them- 
selves in  savage  cruelty.  In  one  house  they  found 
two  aged,  helpless,  unarmed  men,  and  butchered  them 
both  without  mercy,  stabbing  them,  breaking  their 
skulls,  and  dashing  out  their  brains.  Hannah  Adams, 
wife  of  Deacon  Joseph  Adams  of  Cambridge,  lay  in 
child-bed  with  a  babe  of  a  week  old,  but  was  forced 
to  crawl  with  her  infant  in  her  arms  and  almost 
naked  to  a  corn  shed,  while  the  soldiers  set  her  house 
on  fire.  At  Cambridge,  an  idiot,  perched  on  a  fence 
to  gaze  at  the  regular  army,  was  wantonly  shot  at 
and  killed.  Of  the  Americans  there  were  never 
more  than  four  hundred  together  at  any  one  time ; 
but  as  some  grew  tired  or  used  up  their  ammuni- 
tion, others  took  their  places,  and  though  there  was 


TO  CONCORD  AND  BACK  TO  BOSTON.  309 

not  much  concert  or   discipline,  the   pursuit  never  CHAP 
a         T  xxvm 

nagged. 

Below  West  Cambridge,  the  militia  from  Dor- 
Chester,  Roxbury,  and  Brookline  came  up.  Of  these, 
Isaac  Gardner  of  the  latter  place,  one  on  whom  the 
colony  rested  many  hopes,  fell  about  a  mile  west  of 
Harvard  college.  The  field  pieces  began  to  lose  their 
terror,  so  that  the  Americans  pressed  upon  the  rear 
of  the  fugitives,  whose  retreat  could  not  become  more 
precipitate.  Had  it  been  delayed  a  half  hour  longer, 
or  had  Pickering  with  his  fine  regiment  from  Salem 
and  Marblehead  been  alert  enough  to  have  inter- 
cepted them  in  front,  it  was  thought  that,  worn  down 
as  they  were,  by  fatigue  and  exhausted  of  ammuni- 
tion, they  must  have  surrendered.  But  a  little  after 
sunset,  the  survivors  escaped  across  Charlestown 
neck. 

The  troops  of  Percy  had  marched  thirty  miles 
in  ten  hours  j  the  party  of  Smith,  in  six  hours,  had 
retreated  twenty  miles;  the  guns  of  the  ships  of 
war  and  a  menace  to  burn  the  town  of  Charlestown 
saved  them  from  annoyance  during  their  rest  on 
Bunker  Hill,  and  while  they  were  ferried  across 
Charles  river. 

During  the  day,  forty-nine  Americans  were  killed, 
thirty-four  wounded,  and  five  missing.  The  loss  of 
the  British  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  was  two 
hundred  and  seventy-three.  Among  the  wounded 
were  many  officers ;  Smith  himself  was  hurt  severely. 

All  the  night  long,  the  men  of  Massachusetts 
streamed  in  from  scores  of  miles  around,  old  men  as 
well  as  young*  They  had  scarce  a  semblance  of 
artillery,  or  warlike  stores ;  no  powder,  nor  organiza- 


310  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  tion,  nor  provisions ;  but  there  they  were,  thousands 
— i —  with  brave  hearts,  determined  to  rescue  the  liberties 
April*  °f  *keir  country.     "  The  night  preceding  the  outrages 
19.     at  Lexington,  there  were  not  fifty  people  in  the  whole 
colony  that  ever  expected  any  blood  would  be  shed 
in  the  contest ;  "  the  night  after,  the  king's  governor 
and  the  king's  army  found  themselves  closely  belea- 
guered in  Boston. 

"  The  next  news  from  England  must  be  concilia- 
tory, or  the  connection  between  us  ends,"  said  War- 
ren. "  This  month,"  so  William  Emerson  of  Concord, 
who  had  been  chaplain  to  the  provincial  congress, 
chronicled  in  a  blank  leaf  of  his  almanac,  "  is  remark- 
able for  the  greatest  events  of  the  present  age." 
"From  the  nineteenth  of  April,  1775,"  said  Clark,  of 
Lexington,  on  its  first  anniversary,  u  will  be  dated  the 
liberty  of  the  American  world." 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

EFFECTS    OF    THE    DAY    OF    LEXINGTON    AND    CONCORD: 
THE  ALARM. 

APRIL,  1775. 

DAKKNESS   closed  upon  the   country  and   upon  the  CHAP. 
town,  but  it  was  no  night  for  sleep.     Heralds  on  2Ji, 
swiffc  relays  of  horses  transmitted . the  war-message  IT 75. 
from  hand  to  hand,  till  village  repeated  it  to  village ;     19. 
the  sea  to  the  backwoods;  the  plains  to  the  high- 
lands ;  and  it.  was  never  suffered  to  droop,  till  it  had 
been  borne   north,  and   south,  and  east,  and   west, 
throughout  the  land.     It  spread  over  the  bays  that 
receive  the  Saco  and  the  Penobscot.    Its  loud  reveille 
broke  the  rest  of  the  trappers  of  New  Hampshire, 
and   ringing   like  bugle-notes  from   peak   to   peak, 
overleapt  the  Green   Mountains,  swept   onward  to 
Montreal,  and  descended   the   ocean  river,  till  the 
responses  were  echoed  from  the   cliffs  of    Quebec. 
The   hillsi  along  the  Hudson   told  to    one   another 
the  tale.     As  the  summons  hurried  to  the  south,  it 
was  one  day  at  New  York ;  in  one  more  at  Philadel- 
phia ;  the  next  it  lighted  a  watchfire  at  Baltimore ; 
thence  it  waked  an  answer  at  Annapolis.     Crossing 


312  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the  Potomac  near  Mount  Vernon,  it  was  sent  forward 
without  a  halt  to  Williamsburg.  It  traversed  the 
Dismal  Swamp  to  Nansemond  along  the  route  of  the 
first  emigrants  to  North  Carolina.  It  moved  on- 
wards and  still  onwards  through  boundless  groves 
of  evergreen  to  Newbern  and  to  Wilmington.  "  For 
God's  sake,  forward  it  by  night  and  by  day,"  wrote 
Cornelius  Harnett  by  the  express  which  sped  for 
Brunswick.  Patriots  of  South  Carolina  caught  up 
its  tones  at  the  border,  and  despatched  it  to  Charles- 
ton, and  through  pines  and  palmettos  and  moss-clad 
live  oaks,  still  further  to  the  south,  till  it  resounded 
among  the  New  England  settlements  beyond  the  Sa- 
vannah. Hillsborough  and  the  Mecklenburg  district 
of  North  Carolina  rose  in  triumph,  now  that  their 
wearisome  uncertainty  had  its  end.  The  Blue  Ridge 
took  up  the  voice  and  made  it  heard  from  one  end  to 
the  other  of  the  valley  of  Virginia.  The  Alleghanies, 
as  they  listened,  opened  their  barriers  that  the  "  loud 
call "  might  pass  through  to  the  hardy  riflemen  on  the 
Holston,  the  Watauga,  and  the  French  Broad.  Ever 
renewing  its  strength,  powerful  enough  even  to  create 
a  commonwealth,  it  breathed  its  inspiring  word  to 
the  first  settlers  of  Kentucky;  so  that  hunters  who 
made  their  halt  in  the  matchless  valley  of  the  Elk- 
horn,  commemorated  the  nineteenth  day  of  April  by 
naming  their  encampment  LEXINGTON. 

With  one  impulse  the  colonies  sprung  to  arms: 
with  one  spirit  they  pledged  themselves  to  each  other 
"to  be  ready  for  the  extreme  event."  With  one 
heart,  the  continent  cried  "  Liberty  or  Death." 

The  first  measure  of  the  Massachusetts  committee 
of  safety  after  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  of  April, 


THE    ALARM.  313 

was  a  circular  to  the  several  towns  in  Massachusetts.  CHAP. 
"We  conjure  you,"  they  wrote,  "by  all  that  is  dear, 
by  all  that  is  sacred;  we  beg  and  entreat,  as  you 
will  answer  it  to  your  country,  to  your  consciences, 
and  above  all,  to  God  himself,  that  you  will  hasten 
and  encourage  by  all  possible  means  the  enlistment 
of  men  to  form  the  army ;  and  send  them  forward  to 
head-quarters  at  Cambridge  with  that  expedition 
which  the  vast  importance  and  instant  urgency  of 
the  affair  demands."  , 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  had  not  waited  for 
the  call.  The  country  people,  as  soon  as  they  heard 
the  cry  of  innocent  blood  from  the  ground,  snatched 
their  firelocks  from  the  walls ;  and  wives,  and  mothers, 
and  sisters  took  part  in  preparing  the  men  of  their 
households  to  go  forth  to  the  war.  The  farmers 
rushed  to  athe  camp  of  liberty,"  often  with  nothing 
but  the  clothes  on  their  backs,  without  a  day's  pro- 
visions, and  many  without  a  farthing  in  their  pockets. 
Their  country  was  in  danger;  their  brethren  were 
slaughtered ;  their  arms  alone  employed  their  atten- 
tion. On  their  way,  the  inhabitants  gladly  opened 
their  hospitable  doors  and  all  things  were  in  common. 
For  the  first  night  of  the  siege,  Prescott  of  Pepperell 
with  his  Middlesex  minute  men  kept  the  watch  over 
the  entrance  to  Boston,  and  while  Gage  was  driven 
for  safety  to  fortify  the  town  at  all  points,  the  Ameri- 
cans already  talked  of  nothing  but  driving  him  and 
his  regiments  into  the  sea. 

At  the  same  time  the  committee  by  letter  gave 
the  story  of  the  preceding  day  to  New  Hampshire 
and  Connecticut,  whose  assistance  they  entreated. 
"  We  shall  be  glad,"  they  wrote,  "  that  our  brethren 

VOL.  vii.  27 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


314 


xxix'  W^°  come  to  our  a^>  may  ^e  supplied  with  military 
stores  and  provisions,  as  we  have  none  of  either,  more 
than  is  absolutely  necessary  for  ourselves."  And 
without  stores,  or  cannon,  or  supplies  even  of  powder, 
or  of  money,  Massachusetts  by  its  congress,  on  the 
twenty-second  of  April,  resolved  unanimously  that  a 
New  England  army  of  thirty  thousand  men  should 
be  raised,  and  established  its  own  proportion  at  thir- 
teen thousand  six  hundred.  The  term  of  enlistment 
was  fixed  for  the  last  day  of  December. 

Long  before  this  summons  the  ferries  over  the 
Merrimack  were  crowded  by  men  from  New  Hamp- 
shire. "  We  go,"  said  they,  "  to  the  assistance  of  our 
brethren."  By  one  o'clock  of  the  twentieth  upwards 
of  sixty  men  of  Nottingham  assembled  at  the  meet- 
ing-house with  arms  and  equipments,  under  Cilley 
and  Dearborn ;  before  two  they  were  joined  by 
bands  from  Deerfield,  and  Epsom ;  and  they  set  out 
together  for  Cambridge.  At  dusk  they  reached 
Haverhill  ferry,  a  distance  of  twenty-seven  miles, 
having  run  rather  than  marched  ;  they  halted  in 
Andover  only  for  refreshments,  and  traversing  fifty- 
five  miles  in  less  than  twenty  hours,  by  sunrise  of  the 
twenty-first,  paraded  on  Cambridge  common. 

The  veteran  John  Stark,  skilled  in  the  ways  of 
the  Indian,  the  English,  and  his  countrymen,  able  to 
take  his  rest  on  a  bearskin  with  a  roll  of  snow  for  a 
pillow,  frank  and  humane,  eccentric  but  true,  famed 
for  coolness,  and  courage,  and  integrity,  had  no  rival 
in  the  confidence  of  his  neighbors,  and  was  chosen 
colonel  of  their  regiment  by  their  unanimous  vote. 
He  rode  in  haste  to  the  scene  of  action,  on  the  way 
encouraging  the  volunteers  to  rendezvous  at  Med 


TH1    ALARM.  315 

ford.  So  many  followed,  that  on  the  morning  of  the  CHAP. 
twenty-second,  he  was  detached  with  three  hundred  — ^ 
to  take  post  at  Chelsea,  where  his  battalion,  which 
was  one  of  the  fullest  in  the  besieging  army,  became 
a  model  for  its  discipline. 

By  the  twenty-third,  there  were  already  about 
two  thousand  men  from  the  interior  parts  of  New 
Hampshire,  desirous  "  not  to  return  before  the  work 
was  done."  Many  who  remained  near  the  upper 
Connecticut,  threw  up  the  civil  and  military  commis- 
sions held  from  the  king,  for  said  they :  "  The  king 
has  forfeited  his  crown,  and  all  commissions  from  him 
are  therefore  vacated  of  course." 

In  Connecticut,  Trumbull,  the  governor,  sent  out 
writs  to  convene  the  legislature  of  the  colony  at 
Hartford  on  the  Wednesday  following  the  battle. 
Meantime  the  people  could  not  be  restrained.  On  the 
morning  of  the  twentieth,  Israel  Putnam,  of  Pomfret, 
in  leather  frock  and  apron,  was  assisting  hired  men 
to  build  a  stone  wall  on  his  farm,  when  he  heard  the 
cry  from  Lexington.  Leaving  them  to  continue  their 
task,  he  set  off  instantly  to  rouse  the  militia  officers 
of  the  nearest  towns.  On  his  return,  he  found  hun- 
dreds who  had  mustered  and  chosen  him  their  leader. 
Issuing  orders  for  them  to  follow,  he  himself  pushed 
forward  without  changing  the  check  shirt  he  had 
worn  in  the  field,  and  reached  Cambridge  at  sunrise 
the  next  morning,  having  ridden  the  same  horse  a  hun- 
dred miles  within  eighteen  hours*  He  brought  to 
the  service  of  his  country  courage  which,  during  the 
war,  was  never  questioned ;  and  a  heart  than  which 
none  throbbed  more  honestly  or  warmly  for  Ameri- 
can freedom. 


316  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  From  Wethersfield,  a  hundred  young  volunteers 
marched  for  Boston  on  the  twenty-second,  well  armed 
and  in  high  spirits.  From  the  neighboring  towns, 
men  of  the  largest  estates,  and  the  most  esteemed  for 
character,  seized  their  firelocks  and  followed.  By 
the  second  night,  several  thousands  from  the  colony 
were  on  their  way.  Some  fixed  on  their  standards 
and  drums  the  colony  arms,  and  round  it  in  letters  of 
gold,  the  motto,  that  God  who  brought  over  their 
fathers  would  sustain  the  sons. 

In  New  Haven,  Benedict  Arnold,  captain  of  a 
volunteer  company,  agreed  with  his  men  to  march 
the  next  morning  for  Boston.  "  Wait  for  proper 
orders,"  was  the  advice  of  Wooster ;  but  the  self- 
willed  commander,  brooking  no  delay,  extorted  sup- 
plies from  the  committee  of  the  town ;  and  on  the 
twenty-ninth,  reached  the  American  head-quarters 
with  his  company.  There  was  scarcely  a  town  in 
Connecticut  that  was  not  represented  among  the 
besiegers. 

The  nearest  towns  of  Rhode  Island  were  in  mo- 
tion before  the  British  had  finished  their  retreat. 
At  the  instance  of  Hopkins  and  others,  Wanton,  the 
governor,  though  himself  inclined  to  the  royal  side, 
called  an  assembly.  Its  members  were  all  of  one 
mind ;  and  when  Wanton,  with  several  of  the  coun- 
cil, showed  hesitation,  they  resolved,  if  necessary,  to 
proceed  alone.  The  council  yielded,  and  confirmed 
the  unanimous  vote  of  the  assembly  which  authorized 
raising  an  army  of  fifteen  hundred  men.  "  The  col- 
ony of  Rhode  Island,"  wrote  Bowler,  the  speaker,  to 
the  Massachusetts  congress,  "  is  firm  and  determined ; 
and  a  greater  unanimity  in  the  lower  house  scarce 


THE    ALARM.  317 

ever  prevailed."     Companies  of  the  men  of  Rhode  CHAP. 
Island  preceded  this  early  message. 

The  conviction  of  Massachusetts  gained  the  cheer-  " 
ing  confidence  that  springs  from  sympathy,  now  that 
New  Hampshire  and  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
had  come  to  its  support.  The  New  England  volun- 
teers were  men  of  substantial  worth,  of  whom  almost 
every  one  represented  a  household.  The  members  of 
the  several  companies  were  well  known  to  each  other, 
as  to  brothers,  kindred,  and  townsmen  ;  known  to  the 
old  men  who  remained  at  home,  and  to  all  the  ma- 
trons and  maidens.  They  were  sure  to  be  remembered 
weekly  in  the  exercises  of  the  congregations;  and 
morning  and  evening  in  the  usual  family  devotions, 
they  were  commended  with  fervent  piety  to  the  pro- 
tection of  Heaven.  Every  young  soldier  lived  and 
acted,  as  it  were,  under  the  keen  observation  of  all 
those  among  whom  he  had  grown  up,  and  was  sure 
that  his  conduct  would  occupy  the  tongues  of  his 
village  companions  while  he  was  in  the  field,  and 
perhaps  be  remembered  his  life  long.  The  camp  of 
liberty  was  a  gathering  in  arms  of  schoolmates,  neigh- 
bors, and  friends ;  and  Boston  was  beleaguered  round 
from  Roxbury  to  Chelsea  by  an  unorganized,  fluctu- 
ating mass  of  men,  each  with  his  own  musket  and  his 
little  store  of  cartridges,  and  such  provisions  as  he 
brought  with  him,  or  as  were  sent  after  him,  or  were 
contributed  by  the  people  round  about. 

The  British  oificers,  from  the  sense  of  their  own 
weakness,  and  from  fear  of  the  American  marksmen, 
dared  not  order  a  sally.  Their  confinement  was  the 
more  irksome,  for  it  came  of  a  sudden  before  their 
magazines  had  been  filled ;  and  was  followed  by 
VOL.  vii.  27* 


318  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

XXD?'  "an  immediate  st°p  to  supplies  of  every  kind." 
The  troops,  in  consequence,  suffered  severely  from 
unwholesome  diet ;  and  their  commanders  fretted 
with  bitter  mortification.  They  had  scoffed  at  the 
Americans  as  cowards  who  would  run  at  their  sight ; 
and  they  had  saved  themselves  from  destruction 
only  by  the  rapidity  of  their  retreat.  Reenforce 
ments  and  three  new  general  officers  were  already  on 
the  Atlantic,  and  these  would  have  to  be  received 
into  straitened  quarters  by  a  defeated  army.  They 
knew  that  England,  and  even  the  ministers,  would 
condemn  the  inglorious  expedition  which  had  brought 
about  so  sudden  and  so  fatal  a  change.  As  if  to 
brand  in  their  shame,  the  officers  shrunk  from  avow- 
ing their  own  acts ;  and  though  no  one  would  say 
that  he  had  seen  the  Americans  fire  first,  they  tried 
to  make  it  pass  current,  that  a  handful  of  countrymen 
at  Lexington  had  begun  a  fight  with  a  detachment 
that  outnumbered  them  as  twelve  to  one.  "They 
did  not  make  one  gallant  attempt  during  so  long  an 
action,"  wrote  Smith,  who  was  smarting  under  his 
wound,  and  escaped  captivity  only  by  the  opportune 
arrival  of  Percy. 

Men  are  prone  to  fail  in  equity  towards  those 
whom  their  pride  regards  as  their  inferiors.  The 
Americans,  slowly  provoked  and  long  suffering,  treat- 
ed the  prisoners  with  tenderness,  and  nursed  the 
wounded  as  though  they  had  been  members  of  their 
own  families.  They  even  invited  Gage  to  send  out 
British  surgeons  for  their  relief.  Yet  Percy  could 
degrade  himself  so  far  as  to  calumniate  the  country- 
men who  gave  him  chase,  and  officially  lend  himself 
to  the  falsehood,  that  "  the  rebels  scalped  and  cut  ofl 


THE    ALARM.  319 

the  ears  of  some  of  the  wounded  who  fell  into  their  CHAP. 
hands."     He  should  have  respected  the  name  which  — ^ 
he  bore  ;  famed  as  it  is  in  history  and  in  song  ;  and 
he  should  have  respected  the  men  before  whom  he 
fled.     The  falsehood  brings  dishonor  on  its  voucher  ; 
the  people  whom  he  reviled,  were  among  the  mildest 
and  most  compassionate  of  their  race. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 


EFFECTS   OF    THE   DAY   OF   LEXINGTON  AND    CONCORD    CON- 
TINUED:  THE  CAMP  OF  LIBERTY. 


APRIL — MAY,  1775. 

CHAP.  THE  inhabitants  of  Boston  suffered  an  accumulation 
of  sorrows,  brightened  only  by  the  hope  of  the  ulti- 
ma^e  relief  of  aU  America.  Gage  made  them  an  offer 
that  if  they  would  promise  not  to  join  in  an  attack 
on  his  troops,  and  would  lodge  their  arms  with  the 
selectmen  at  Faneuil  Hall,  the  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, with  all  their  effects,  should  have  safe  conduct 
out  of  the  town.  The  proposal  was  accepted.  For 
several  days  the  road  to  Roxbury  was  thronged  with 
wagons  and  trains  of  wretched  exiles ;  but  they  were 
not  allowed  to  take  with  them  any  provisions ;  and 
nothing  could  be  more  affecting  than  to  see  the  help- 
less families  come  out  without  any  thing  to  eat. 
The  provincial  congress  took  measures  for  distribut- 
ing five  thousand  of  the  poor  among  the  villages  of 
the  interior.  But  the  loyalists  of  Boston,  of  whom 
two  hundred  volunteered  to  enter  the  king's  service, 


THE    CAMP    OF    LIBERTY.  32] 

desired  to  detain  the  people  as  hostages ;  Gage  CHAR 
therefore  soon  violated  his  pledge ;  and  many  re- 
spected  citizens,  children  whose  fathers  were  absent, 
widows,  unemployed  mechanics,  persons  who  had  no 
protectors  to  provide  for  their  escape,  remained  in 
town  to  share  the  hardships  of  a  siege,  ill  provided, 
and  exposed  to  the  insults  of  an  exasperated  ertemy. 
Words  cannot  describe  their  sufferings. 

Connecticut  still  hoped  for  "  a  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties," and  for  that  purpose,  Johnson,  so  long  its  agent 
abroad,  esteemed  by  public  men  in  England  for  his 
moderation  and  ability,  repaired  as  one  of  its  envoys 
to  Boston ;  but  Gage  only  replied  by  a  narrative 
which  added  new  falsehoods  to  those  of  Smith  and 
Percy.  By  a  temperate  answer  he  might  have  con- 
fused New  England ;  the  effrontery  of  his  assertions, 
made  against  the  clearest  evidence,  shut  out  the  hope 
of  an  agreement. 

No  choice  was  left  to  the  Massachusetts  com- 
mittee of  safety  but  to  drive  out  the  British  army, 
or  perish  in  the  attempt ;  even  though  every  thing 
conspired  to  make  the  American  forces  incapable  of 
decisive  action.  There  was  no  unity  in  the  camp. 
At  Roxbury,  John  Thomas  had  command,  and  re- 
ceived encomiums  for  the  good  order  which  prevailed 
in  his  division ;  but  Ward,  the  general  who  was  at 
Cambridge,  had  the  virtues  of  a  magistrate  rather 
than  of  a  soldier.  He  was  old,  unused  to  a  separate 
military  command,  and  so  infirm,  that  he  was  not  fit 
to  appear  on  horseback ;  and  he  never  could  intro- 
duce exact  discipline  among  free  men,  whom  even  the 
utmost  vigor  and  ability  might  have  failed  to  control, 
and  who  owned  no  superiority  but  that  of  merit,  no 


322  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  obedience  but  that  of  willing  minds.  Nor  had  he 
— t — •  received  from  the  provincial  congress  his  commission 
as  commander  m  chief ;  nor  was  his  authority  inde- 
pendent of  the  committee  of  safety.  Moreover,  the 
men  from  other  colonies  did  not  as  yet  form  an  in- 
tegral part  of  one  "  grand  American  "  army,  but  ap- 
peared as  independent  corps  from  their  respective 
provinces  under  leaders  of  their  own. 

Of  the  men  of  Massachusetts  who  first  came  down 
as  volunteers,  the  number  varied  from  day  to  day  ; 
and  was  never  at  any  one  time  ascertained  with  pre- 
cision. Many  of  them  returned  home  almost  as  soon 
as  they  came,  for  want  of  provisions  or  clothes,  or 
because  they  had  not  waited  to  put  their  affairs  in 
order.  Of  those  who  enlisted  in  the  Massachusetts 
army,  a  very  large  number  absented  themselves  on 
furlough.  It  was  feared  by  Ward  that  it  would  be 
impossible  for  him  to  keep  the  army  together ;  and 
that  he  should  be  left  alone.  As  for  artillery,  it  was 
found,  on  inquiry,  that  there  were  altogether  no  more 
than  six  three-pounders  and  one  six-pounder  in  Cam- 
bridge, besides  sixteen  pieces  in  Watertown,  of  differ- 
ent sizes,  some  of  them  good  for  nothing.  But  even 
these  were  more  than  could  be  used.  There  was  no 
ammunition  but  for  the  six  three-pounders,  and  very 
little  for  them.  In  the  scarcity  of  powder,  the  most 
anxious  search  was  made  for  it  throughout  the  colony ; 
and  after  scouring  five  principal  counties,  the  whole 
amount  that  could  be  found  was  less  than  sixty-eight 
barrels.  The  other  colonies,  to  which  the  most  ear- 
nest entreaties  were  addressed  for  a  supply,  were 
equally  unprovided.  In  the  colony  of  New  York, 


THE    CAMP    OF    LIBERTY.  323 


there  were  not  more  than  one  hundred  pounds  of 
powder  for  sale. 

Notwithstanding  these  obstacles,  the  scheming 
genius  of  New  England  was  in  the  highest  activity.  1- 
While  the  expedition  against  Ticonderoga  was  sanc- 
tioned by  a  commission  granted  to  Benedict  Arnold, 
the  congress,  which  was  then  sitting  in  Watertown, 
received  from  Jonathan  Brewer,  of  Waltham,  a  pro- 
position to  march  with  a  body  of  five  hundred  volun- 
teers to  Quebec,  by  way  of  the  rivers  Kennebeck 
and  Chaudiere,  in  order  to  draw  the  governor  of 
Canada,  with  his  troops,  into  that  quarter,  and  thus 
secure  the  northern  and  western  frontiers  from  in- 
roads. He  was  sure  it  u  could  be  executed  with  all 
the  facility  imaginable."  The  design  was  not  then 
favored,  but  it  did  not  pass  out  of  mind. 

Now  that  Massachusetts  had  entered  into  war 
with  Great  Britain,  next  to  the  want  of  military 
stores,  the  poverty  of  her  treasury,  which  during  the 
whole  winter  had  received  scarcely  five  thousand 
pounds  of  currency  to  meet  all  expenses,  gave  just 
cause  for  apprehension.  For  more  than  twenty  years, 
she  had  endeavored  by  legislative  penalties  to  exclude 
the  paper  currency  of  other  provinces,  and  had  issued 
no  notes  of  her  own  but  certificates  of  debt,  in  ad- 
vance of  the  revenue.  These  certificates  were  for  May  5. 
sums  of  six  pounds  and  upwards,  bearing  interest,  and 
had  no  forced  circulation,  and  were  kept  at  par  by 
the  high  condition  of  her  credit  and  her  general 
prosperity.  The  co-operation  of  neighboring  colonies 
compelled  her  congress  in  May  to  legalize  the  paper 
money  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  ;  and  from 
fiscal  necessity  to  issue  her  own  treasury  notes.  Of 


32  i  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  her  first  emission  of  one  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
—  ^  there  were  no  notes  under  four  pounds,  and  they  all 


775  preserved  the  accustomed  form  of  certificates  of  pub- 
lic debt,  of  which  the  use  was  not  made  compulsory. 
But  in  less  than  three  weel£s,  an  emission  of  twenty- 
six  thousand  pounds  was  authorized  for  the  advance 
pay  to  the  soldiers,  and  these  "soldiers'  notes,"  of 
which  the  smallest  was  for  one  dollar,  were  made  a 
legal  tender  "in  all  payments  without  discount  or 
abatement."  Rhode  Island  put  out  twenty  thousand 
pounds  in  bills,  of  which  the  largest  was  for  forty 
shillings,  the  smallest  for  sixpence. 

On  the  fifth  of  May,  the  provincial  congress  re- 
solved :  "  that  General  Gage  had  disqualified  himself 
for  serving  the  colony  in  any  .capacity,  that  no  obe- 
dience was  in  future  due  to  him,  that  he  ought  to  be 
guarded  against  as  an  unnatural  and  inveterate  ene- 
my." To  provide  for  order  was  an  instant  necessity  ; 
but  the  patriots  of  the  colony  checked  their  eager- 
ness to  renovate  the  ancient  custom  of  annually  elect- 
ing their  chief  magistrate,  and  resolved  to  wait  till 
they  could  receive  from  the  continental  congress  "  ex- 
plicit advice  respecting  the  taking  up  and  exercising 
the  powers  of  civil  government."  They  were  ready 
to  receive  a  plan,  or  with  the  consent  of  congress,  to 
establish  a  form  for  themselves. 

"  After  the  termination  of  the  present  struggle,'* 
wrote  Warren,  u  I  hope  never  more  to  be  obliged  to 
enter  into  a  political  war.  I  would,  therefore,  wish 
the  government  here  to  be  so  happily  constituted, 
that  the  only  road  to  promotion  may  be  through  the 
affections  of  the  people.  I  would  have  such  a  govern- 
ment as  should  give  every  man  the  greatest  liberty 


THE    CAMP    OF   LIBERTY.  325 

to  do  what  he  pleases,  consistent  with  restraining  him  CHAP. 

/»  1  I  •  1  -X.2LX-* 

from  doing  any  injury  to  another,  or  such  a  govern-  — *~ 
ment  as  would  most  contribute  to  the  good  of  the 
whole,  with  the  least  inconvenience  to  individuals." 

To  form  the  grand  American  army,  New  Hamp- 
shire agreed  to  raise  two  thousand  men,  of  whom 
perhaps  twelve  hundred  reached  the  camp.  Folsom 
was  their  brigadier,  but  John  Stark  was  the  most 
trusty  officer.  Connecticut  offered  six  thousand  men, 
and  about  twenty-three  hundred  remained  at  Cam- 
bridge, with  Spenser  as  their  chief  commander,  and 
Putnam  as  second  brigadier. 

Rhode  Island  voted  an  army  of  fifteen  hundred 
men,  and  probably  about  a  thousand  of  them  ap- 
peared round  Boston,  under  Nathaniel  Greene  as 
their  commander.  He  was  one  of  eight  sons,  born 
in  a  house  of  a  single  story,  near  the  Narragansett 
Bay  in  Warwick.  In  that  quiet  seclusion,  Gorton  and 
his  followers,  untaught  of  universities,  had  reasoned 
on  the  highest  questions  of  being.  They  had  held, 
that  in  America  Christ  was  coming  to  his  temple, 
that  outward  ceremonies,  baptism  and  the  eucharist, 
and  also  kings  and.  lords,  bishops  and  chaplains,  were 
all  but  carnal  ordinances,  sure  to  have  an  end ;  that 
humanity  must  construct  its  church  by  "  the  voice  of 
the  Son  of  God,"  the  voice  of  reason  and  love.  The 
father  of  Greene,  descended  from  ancestry  of  this 
school,  was  at  once  an  anchor  smith,  a  miller,  a 
farmer,  and,  like  Gorton,  a  preacher.  The  son  excel- 
led in  diligence  and  in  manly  sports.  None  of  his 
age  could  wrestle,  or  skate,  or  run  better  than  he ;  or 
stand  before  him  as  a  neat  ploughman  and  a  skilful 
mechanic. 

VOL.  vn.  28 


326  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.       Aided  by  intelligent  men  of  his  own  village,  or 
v^v-^  of  Newport,  he  read  Euclid,  and  learned  to  apply 
l\r75 '  geome^ry  t°  surveying  and  navigation ;  he  studied 
Watts's  logic,  Locke  on  the  human  understanding, 
pored  over  English  versions  of  the  Lives    of  Plu- 
tarch,   the    Commentaries   of    Caesar,   and    became 
familiar  with    some    of  the    best    English  classics, 
especially  Shakespeare  and  Milton. 

When  the  stamp-act  was  resisted,  he  and  his 
brothers  never  feared  to  rally  at  the  drum-beat. 
Simple  in  his  tastes,  temperate  as  a  Spartan,  and  a 
great  lover  of  order,  he  rose  early,  and  was  indefati- 
gable at  study  or  at  work.  He  married,  and  his 
home  became  the  abode  of  peace  and  hospitality. 
His  neighbors  looked  up  to  him  as  an  extraordinary 
man,  and  from  1770,  he  was  their  representative  in 
the  colonial  legislature.  Once  in  1773,  he  rode  to 
Plainfield  in  Connecticut,  to  witness  a  grand  military 
parade  ;  and  the  spectacle  was  for  him  a  good  com- 
mentary on  Sharp's  military  guide.  In  1774,  in  a 
coat  and  hat  of  the  Quaker  fashion,  he  was  seen 
watching  the  exercise  and  manoeuvres  of  the  British 
troops  at  Boston,  where  he  used  to  buy  of  Henry 
Knox,  a  bookseller,  treatises  on  the  art  of  war. 

On  the  day  of  Lexington,  Greene  started  to  share 
in  the  conflict ;  but  being  met  by  tidings  of  the  re- 
treat of  the  British,  he  went  back  to  take  his  seat  in 
the  Rhode  Island  legislature.  He  next  served  as  a 
commissioner  to  concert  military  plans  with  Connec- 
ticut, and  when  in  May  the  Rhode  Island  brigade  of 
fifteen  hundred  men  was  enlisted,  he  was  elected  its 
general.  None  murmured  at  the  advancement  of  the 
unassuming  man  whom  nature  had  so  gifted  with 


THE    CAMP    OF    LIBERTY.  327 

readiness  to  oblige,  and  gentleness  of  disposition,  and  CHAP. 
the  mildest  manners,  that  every  one  loved  him,  "  I  ^~ 
hope,"  said  he  meekly,  "  God  will  preserve  me  in  the 
bounds  of  moderation,  and  enable  me  to  support  my- 
self with  proper  dignity,  neither  rash  nor  timorous." 
He  loved  to  serve  his  country  more  than  the  honor 
of  serving  it ;  and  if  its  good  had  required  it,  would 
have  exchanged  his  command  for  that  of  a  sergeant, 
or  the  place  of  a  soldier  in  the  ranks,  without  a  mur- 
mur. As  he  became  familiar  with  his  duty,  he  never 
forgot  that  he  was  keeping  guard  for  the  interests  of 
mankind,  looking  to  the  continental  congress  as  the 
friend  of  the  liberty  of  the  world,  and  the  support  of 
the  rights  of  human  nature. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  CONTINUED  : 
THE  GENERAL  RISING. 

APRIL — MAY,  1775. 

ON  Sunday  the  twenty-third  of  April,  the  day  after 
•^ — '  the  dissolution  of  the  provincial  congress  of  New 
IA  ?rii  York,  the  news  from  Lexington  suddenly  burst  upon 
23.  the  city.  The  emissaries  who  had  undertaken  to 
break  the  chain  of  union  by  intrigue,  saw  with  dis- 
may the  arrest  of  their  schemes  by  the  beginning  of 
war.  The  inhabitants,  flushed  with  resentment, 
threw  off  restraints.  Though  it  was  Sunday,  two 
sloops  which  lay  at  the  wharfs  laden  with  flour 
and  supplies  for  the  British  at  Boston,  of  the  value 
of  eighty  thousand  pounds,  were  speedily  unloaded. 
The  next  day  Dartmouth's  despatches  arrived  with 
Lord  North's  conciliatory  resolve,  and  with  lavish 
promises  of  favor.  But  the  royal  government  was 
already  prostrate,  and  could  not  recover  its  con- 
sideration. Isaac  Sears  concerted  with  John  Lamb 
to  stop  all  vessels  going  to  Quebec,  Newfoundland, 
Georgia,  or  Boston ;  where  British  authority  was  still 


THE    GENERAL    RISING.  329 

supreme.  The  people  who  came  together  at  beat  of  CHAP. 
drum  shut  up  the  custom-house ;  and  the  merchants  ^^^ 
whose  vessels  were  cleared  out,  dared  not  let  them  l^^ 
sail.  24. 

In  the  following  days  the  city  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion of  New  York  were  secured  ;  and  volunteer  com- 
panies paraded  in  the  streets.  Small  cannon  were 
hauled  from  the  city  to  Kingsbridge ;  churchmen  as 
well  as  presbyterians,  without  regard  to  creeds,  took 
up  arms.  As  the  old  committee  of  fifty-one  lagged  be- 
hind the  prevailing  excited  zeal  of  the  multitude,  on 
Monday,  the  first  of  May,  the  people,  at  the  usual 
places  of  election,  chose  for  the  city  and  county,  a 
new  general  committee  of  one  hundred,  who  "  resolved 
in  the  most  explicit  manner  to  stand  or  fall  with  the 
liberty  of  the  continent."  All  parts  of  the  colony 
were  summoned  to  choose  delegates  to  a  provincial 
convention,  to  which  the  city  and  county  of  New  York 
deputed  one  and  twenty  as  their  representatives. 

Eighty-three  members  of  the  new  general  com- 
mittee met  as  soon  as  they  were  chosen ;  and  on  the 
motion  of-  John  Morin  Scott,  seconded  by  Alexander 
Macdougall,  an  association  was  set  on  foot,  engag- 
ing under  all  the  ties  of  religion,  honor,  and  love  of 
country,  to  submit  to  committees  and  to  congress, 
to  withhold  supplies  from  British  troops,  and  at 
the  risk  of  lives  and  fortunes,  to  repel  every  at- 
tempt at  enforcing  taxation  by  parliament.  The 
royalists  had  desired  the  presence  of  a  considerable 
body  of  British  soldiery ;  the  blood  shed  at  Lexing- 
ton left  them  no  hope  but  in  a  change  of  policy.  Ac- 
cordingly, fourteen  members  of  the  New  York  as- 
sembly, most  of  them  stanch  supporters  of  the 

VOL.    YII.  28* 


330  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  plans  of  the  ministry,  entreated  General  Gage  that 

— Y—  hostilities  might  cease  till  fresh  orders  could  be  re- 

Miy     ceived  from  the  king,  and  especially  that  no  military 

force  might  be  permitted  to  land  or  be  stationed  in 

the  province  of  New  York. 

May  On  the  day  for  the  sailing  of  the  packet,  all 
5*  parties  made  their  appeal  to  England.  The  royal 
council  despatched  two  agents  to  represent  to  the  min 
istry  how  severely  the  rash  conduct  of  the  army  at 
Boston  had  injured  the  friends  of  the  king ;  while 
the  New  York  committee  thus  addressed  the  Lord 
Mayor  and  corporation  of  London,  and  through  them 
the  capital  of  the  British  empire,  and  the  people  of 
Great  Britain : 

"  Born  to  the  bright  inheritance  of  English  free- 
dom, the  inhabitants  of  this  extensive  continent  can 
never  submit  to  slavery.  The  disposal  of  their  own 
property  with  perfect  spontaneity  is  their  indefeas- 
ible birthright.  This  they  are  determined  to  defend 
with  their  blood,  and  transfer  to  their  posterity.  The 
present  machinations  of  arbitrary  power,  if  unremit- 
tedly  pursued,  will,  by  a  fatal  necessity,  terminate  in 
a  dissolution  of  the  empire.  This  country  will  not 
be  deceived  by  measures  conciliatory  in  appearance. 
We  cheerfully  submit  to  a  regulation  of  commerce 
by  the  legislature  of  the  parent  state,  excluding  in  its 
nature  every  idea  of  taxation.  When  our  unexampled 
grievances  are  redressed,  our  prince  will  find  his 
American  subjects  testifying  by  as  ample  aids  as 
their  circumstances  will  permit,  the  most  unshaken 
fidelity  to  their  sovereign.  America  is  grown  so 
irritable  by  oppression,  that  the  least  shock  in  any 
part  is,  by  the  most  powerful  sympathetic  affection, 


THE    GENERAL    RISING.  331 

instantaneously   felt   through   the   whole   continent.  CHAP. 
This  city  is  as  one  man  in  the  cause  of  liberty ;  our  S-Y— 
inhabitants  are  resolutely  bent  on  supporting  their  1^^' 
committee   and  the  intended  provincial   and   conti-      5- 
nental  congresses ;  there  is  not  the  least  doubt  of  the 
efficacy  of  their  example  in  the  other  counties.     In 
short,  while  the  whole  continent  are  ardently  wishing 
for  peace  upon  such  terms  as  can  be  acceded  to  by 
Englishmen,  they  are  indefatigable  in  preparing  for 
the  last  appeal. 

"  We  speak  the  real  sentiments  of  the  confeder- 
ated colonies,  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Georgia,  when  we 
declare,  that  all  the  horrors  of  civil  war  will  never 
compel  America  to  submit  to  taxation  by  authority 
of  parliament." 

The  letter  was  signed  by  the  chairman  and  eighty- 
eight  others  of  the  committee,  of  whom  the  first  was 
John  Jay.  They  did  this,  knowing  that  at  the  time 
there  were  not  five  hundred  pounds  of  powder  in 
all  the  city,  that  several  regiments  were  already 
ordered  to  New  York,  that  it  was  commanded  by 
Brooklyn  heights,  and  that  the  deep  water  of  its  har- 
bor exposed  it  on  both  sides  to  ships  of  war. 

The  packet  for  England  had  hardly  passed  Sandy 
Hook,  when  on  Saturday,  the  sixth  of  May,  the  dele- 
gates to  the  continental  congress  from  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  drew  near.  Three  miles  from  the 
city,  they  were  met  by  a  company  of  grenadiers 
and  a  regiment  of  the  city  militia  under  arms,  by 
carriages  and  a  cavalcade,  and  by  many  thousands 
of  persons  on  foot.  Along  roads  which  were  crowded 
as  if  the  whole  city  had  come  out  to  meet  them,  they 


332  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  made  their  entry,  amidst  loud  acclamations,  the  ring- 
ing  of  bells,  and  every  demonstration  of  joy. 

On  Monday  the  delegation  from  Massachusetts, 
with  a  part  of  that  of  New  York,  were  escorted 
across  the  Hudson  River  by  two  hundred  of  the 
militia  under  arms,  and  three  hundred  citizens ;  and 
triumphal  honors  awaited  them  at  Newark  and 
Elizabethtown. 

The  governor  of  New  Jersey  could  not  conceal 
his  chagrin,  that  Gage  "  had  risked  commencing  hos- 
tilities," before  the  experiment  had  been  tried  of  at- 
tempting to  cajole  the  several  colonial  legislatures 
into  an  acquiescence  in  Lord  North's  propositions. 

The  committee  of  Newark  were  willing  to  hazard 
their  lives  and  fortunes  in  support  of  their  brethren 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay.  Princeton  and  Perth 
Amboy  advised  a  provincial  congress  ;  to  which 
Morris  county  promptly  appointed  delegates.  "  All 
ranks  of  men  "  in  Woodbridge  greatly  applauded  and 
admired  the  conduct  and  bravery  of  Massachusetts. 
On  the  second  of  May  the  New  Jersey  committee  of 
correspondence  called  a  provincial  congress  for  the 
twenty-third  at  Trenton.  To  anticipate  its  influence, 
the  governor  convened  the  regular  assembly  eight 
days  earlier  at  Burlington,  and  laid  before  them  the 
project  of  Lord  North.  The  assembly  could  see 
in  the  proposition  no  avenue  to  reconciliation ;  and 
declared  their  intention  to  "  abide  by  the  united  voice 
of  the  continental  congress." 

Such  too  was  the  spirit  of  Pennsylvania.  "  Let 
us  not  be  bold  in  declarations  and  cold  in  action  ; 
nor  have  it  said  of  Philadelphia  that  she  passed  noble 
resolutions  and  neglected  them,"  were  the  words  of 


THE    GENERAL    RISING.  333 

Mifflin,  youngest  of  the  orators  who  on  the  twenty-  CHAP 
fifth  of  April,  addressed  the  town-meeting  called  in 
Philadelphia  on  receiving  the  news  from  Lexington. 
Thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  were  present, 
and  agreed  "  to  associate  for  the  purpose  of  defend- 
ing with  arms,  their  lives,  their  property,  and  liberty." 
Each  township  in  Berks  county,  resolved  to  raise  and 
discipline  its  company.  Reading  formed  a  company 
of  its  old  men  also,  who  wore  crape  in  lieu  of  a  cock- 
ade, in  token  of  sorrow  for  the  slaughter  of  their 
brethren.  In  Philadelphia  thirty  companies,  with 
fifty  to  one  hundred  in  each,  daily  practised  the 
manual  exercise  of  the  musket. 

The  Pennsylvania  assembly  which  met  on  the 
first  day  of  May,  would  not  listen  to  the  ministerial 
terms.  "  We  can  form,"  say  they,  "  no  prospect  of 
any  lasting  advantages  for  Pennsylvania  but  what 
must  arise  from  a  communication  of  rights  and  prop- 
erty with  the  other  colonies."  The  fifth  of  May  saw  May 
the  arrival  of  Franklin  after  a  placid  voyage  over 
the  smoothest  seas;  and  the  next  morning  he  was 
unanimously  elected  a  deputy  to  the  congress.  It 
was  the  signal  for  Galloway  to  retire ;  but  the  dele- 
gation, to  which  Thomas  Willing  and  James  Wilson 
were  added,  were  still  instructed  to  combine  if  possi- 
ble a  redress  of  grievances  with  "  union  and  harmony 
between  Great  Britian  and  the  colonies." 

The  little  colony  of  Delaware  was  behind  no  one 
in  public  spirit.  In  Maryland,  at  the  request  of  the 
colonels  of  militia,  Eden  at  Annapolis  gave  up  the 
arms  and  ammunition  of  the  province  to  the  free- 
men of  the  county.  Pleased  with  his  concession,  the 
provincial  convention  distinguished  itself  by  its  dis- 


334  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  passionate  moderation;  and  "its  delegates  to  congress 
^v-1*  went  determined  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation." 

Virginia  was  still  angry  at  the  seizure  of  its  pro- 
vincial magazine  and  at  the  menace  of  Dunmore  to 
encourage  an  insurrection  of  slaves,  when  on  the 
second  day  of  May,  at  the  cry  from  Lexington,  the  in- 
dependent company  of  Hanover  and  its  county  com- 
mittee were  called  together  by  Patrick  Henry.  The 
soldiers,  most  of  them  young 'men,  kindled  at  his 
words,  elected  him  their  chief,  and  marched  for 
Williamsburg.  On  the  way  it  was  thought  that 
his  army  increased  to  five  thousand. 

"  There  is  scarce  a  county  of  the  whole  colony," 
wrote  Dunmore,  "  wherein  part  of  the  people  have 
not  taken  up  arms,  and  declared  their  intention  of 
forcing  me  to  make  restitution  of  the  powder." 
Alarmed  by  the  "  insurrections,"  he  convened  the 
council  of  Virginia,  and  in  a  proclamation  of  the 
third  of  May  did  not  scruple  to  utter  the  falsehood 
that  he  had  removed  the  ammunition  lest  it  should 
be  seized  by  insurgent  slaves.  Message  after  mes- 
sage could  not  arrest  the  march  or  change  the  pur- 
pose of  Henry.  Lady  Dunmore,  who  need  have 
feared  nothing  for  herself,  professed  to  dread  being 
retained  as  a  hostage,  and  with  her  family  retired 
to  the  Fowey  man-of-war.  The  governor  first  re- 
solved to  resist  and  then  thought  it  best  to  yield. 
May  On  the  morning  of  the  fourth,  at  about  sunrise,  a 
*•  messenger  met  Patrick  Henry  at  Doncastle's  Ordi- 
nary in  New  .Kent,  and  as  a  compensation  for  the  gun- 
powder taken  out  of  the  magazine,  paid  him  three 
hundred  and  thirty  pounds,  for  which  he  was  to  ac- 
count to  the  provincial  congress  of  Virginia.  When 


THE    GENERAL    RISING.  335 

it  was  afterwards  found  that  the  sum  exceeded  the  CHAP. 
value  of  the  powder,  the  next  Virginia  convention 
directed  the  excess  to  be  restored. 


Two  days  after  the  return  of  the  volunteers,  Dun- 
more  issued  a  proclamation  against  "  a  certain  Pat- 
rick Henry,"  and  his  "  deluded  followers  ;  "  and 
secretly  denounced  him  to  the  ministry  as  "a  man 
of  desperate  circumstances,  one  who  had  been  very 
active  in  encouraging  disobedience  and  exciting  a 
spirit  of  revolt  among  the  people  for  many  years 
past."  On  the  other  hand,  the  interior  resounded 
with  the  praise  of  the  insurgents.  On  the  eighth, 
Louisa  county  sent  them  its  hearty  thanks.  On  the 
ninth,  Spottsylvania  cordially  approved  their  prudent, 
firm,  and  spirited  conduct  ;  and  Orange  county  in  a 
letter  signed  among  others  by  the  young  and  studi- 
ous James  Madison,  a  recent  graduate  of  Princeton 
college,  applauded  their  zeal  for  the  honor  and  in- 
terest of  the  country.  "  The  blow  struck  in  Massa- 
chusetts," they  add,  "is  a  hostile  attack  on  this  and 
every  other  colony,  and  a  sufficient  warrant  to  use 
reprisal." 

On  the  eleventh,  Patrick  Henry  set  off  for  the  May 
continental  congress  ;  and  his  progress  was  a  triumph. 
Amidst  salutes  and  huzzas,  a  volunteer  guard  accom- 
panied him  to  the  Maryland  side  of  the  Potomac  ; 
and  as  they  said  farewell,  they  invoked  God's  bless- 
ing on  the  champion  of  their  "  dearest  rights  and 
liberties." 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  CONTINUED. 
TICONDEROGA  TAKEN. 


MAY,  1775. 

CHAP.  THE  people  of  South  Carolina,  who  had  hoped  relief 
'  through  the  discontinuance  of  importations  from  Brit- 
am?  did  not  falter  on  learning  the  decision  of  parlia- 
ment. On  the  instant,  Charles  Pinckney,  using  power 
intrusted  to  him  by  the  provincial  congress,  appointed 
a  committee  of  five  to  place  the  colony  in  a  state  of 
defence  ;  on  the  twenty-first  of  April,  the  very  night 
after  their  organization,  men  of  Charleston,  without 
disguise,  under  their  direction,  seized  all  the  powder 
in  the  public  magazines,  and  removed  eight  hundred 
stand  of  arms  and  other  military  stores  from  the  royal 
arsenal.  The  tidings  from  Lexington  induced  the 
general  committee  to  hasten  the  meeting  of  the  pro- 
vincial congress ;  whose  members,  on  the  second  of 
June,  Henry  Laurens  being  their  president,  associated 
themselves  for  defence  against  every  foe  ;  "  ready  to 
sacrifice  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  secure  her  freedom 
and  safety."  They  resolved  to  raise  two  regiments 
of  infantry,  and  a  regiment  of  rangers.  To  this  end, 
one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  pounds  sterling  were 
issued  in  bills  of  credit,  which  for  a  year  and  a  half 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  people  did  not  suffer  to  fall  in 


TICONDEROGA    TAKEN.  337 

value.     "  We  are  ready  to  give  freely  half  or  the  CHAP. 

XXXII 

whole  of  our  estates  for  the  security  of  our  liberties,"    — ^ 
was  the  universal  language. 

The  militia  officers  threw  up  their  commissions 
from  the  royal  governor,  and  submitted  to  the  orders 
of  congress.  A  council  of  safety  was  charged  with 
executive  powers.  In  the  midst  of  these  proceed- 
ings, Lord  William  Campbell,  their  new  governor, 
arrived,  and  the  provincial  congress  waited  on  him 
with  an  address  :  "  No  lust  of  independence  has  had 
the  least  influence  upon  our  counsels ;  no  subjects 
more  sincerely  desire  to  testify  their  loyalty  and 
affection.  We  deplore  the  measures,  which,  if  per- 
sisted in,  must  rend  the  British  empire.  Trust- 
ing the  event  to  Providence,  we  prefer  death  to 
slavery." 

"  The  people  of  Charleston  are  as  mad  as  they 
are  here  in  Boston,"  was  the  testimony  of  Gage. 

The  skirmish  at  Lexington  became  known  in  Sa- 
vannah on  the  tenth  of  May,  and  added  Georgia  to 
the  union.  At  that  time  she  had  about  seventeen 
thousand  white  inhabitants  and  fifteen  thousand  Afri- 
cans. Her  militia  was  not  less  than  three  thousand. 
Her  frontier,  which  extended  from  Augusta  to  St. 
Mary's,  was  threatened  by  the  Creeks  with  four  thou- 
sand warriors ;  the  Chickasaws,  with  four  hundred 
and  fifty ;  the  Cherokees,  with  three  thousand ;  the 
Choctaws^  with  twenty-five  hundred.  But  danger 
could  not  make  her  people  hesitate.  On  the  night  of 
the  eleventh,  Noble  Wimberley  Jones,  Joseph  Haber- 
sham,  Edward  Telfair,  and  others,  broke  open  the 
king's  magazine  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city,  and 
took  from  it  over  five  hundred  pounds  of  powder. 

VOL.  vii.        29 


338  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  In  writing  to  the  committee  for  Boston,  they  ac- 
knowledged  the  noble  stand  taken  by  Massachusetts ; 
and  to  the  Boston  wanderers,  they  sent  sixty-three 
barrels  of  rice  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-two 
pounds  in  specie.  On  the  king's  birthday  the  pa- 
triots erected  a  liberty  pole ;  as  if  to  express  the  wish 
still  to  combine  allegiance  to  the  king  with  their  de- 
votion to  American  liberty. 

"  A  general  rebellion  throughout  America  is  com- 
ing on  suddenly  and  swiftly,"  reported  their  governor. 
"  Matters  will  go  to  the  utmost  extremity." 

Meantime,  great  deeds  had  been  achieved  by  the 
mountaineers  of  the  north.  To  hold  the  city  of  New 
York,  its  harbor,  and  the  river  Hudson,  and  by  means 
of  the  fortresses  on  the  lakes  to  keep  open  a  free  com- 
munication with  Canada,  was  the  scheme  by  which 
it  was  hoped  to  insulate  and  reduce  New  England. 
On  Saturday,  the  twenty-ninth  of  April,  Samuel  Ad- 
ams and  Hancock,  as  they  passed  through  Hartford, 
had  secretly  met  the  governor  and  council  of  Con- 
necticut, to  promote  the  surprise  of  Ticonderoga, 
which  had  been  planned  by  the  Green  Mountain 
Boys.  Ethan  Allen  was  encouraged  by  an  express 
messenger  to  hold  them  in  readiness  ;  and  the  neces- 
sary funds  were  furnished  from  the  treasury  of  Con- 
necticut. Sixteen  men  of  that  colony  leaving  Salis- 
bury, were  joined  in  Massachusetts  by  John  Brown, 
who  had  first  proposed  the  enterprise  in  a  letter  from 
Montreal,  by  Colonel  James  Easton,  and  by  not  so 
many  as  fifty  volunteers  from  Berkshire.  At  Ben- 
nington  they  found  Ethan  Allen,  who  was  certainly 
"the  proper  man  to  head  his  own  people."  Re- 
pairing to  the  north,  he  sent  the  alarm  through  the 


TICONDEKOGA    TAKEN.  339 

hills  of  Vermont ;  and  on  Sunday,  the  seventh  of  CHAP. 
May,  about  one  hundred  Green  Mountain  Boys  and  ^— v^ 
near  fifty  soldiers  from  Massachusetts,  under  the  com- 
mand  of  Easton,  rallied  at  Castleton.  Just  then 
arrived  Benedict  Arnold,  with  only  one  attendant. 
He  brought  a  commission  from  the  Massachusetts 
committee  of  safety,  which  was  disregarded,  and  the 
men  unanimously  elected  Ethan  Allen  their  chief. 

On  the  eighth  of  May,  the  party  began  the 
march  ;  late  on  the  ninth,  they  arrived  at  Or- 
well. With  the  utmost  difficulty,  a  few  boats  were 
got  together,  and  eighty-three  men  crossing  the 
lake  with  Allen,  landed  near  the  garrison.  The 
boats  were  sent  back  for  Seth  Warner  and  the  rear 
guard ;  but  if  they  were  to  be  waited  for,  there  could 
be  no  surprise.  The  men  were,  therefore,  at  once 
drawn  up  in  three  ranks,  and  as  the  first  beams  o£ 
morning  broke  upon  the  mountain  peaks,  Allen  ad- 
dressed them  :  "  Friends  and  fellow-soldiers  :  We 
must  this  morning  quit  our  pretensions  to  valor,  or 
possess  ourselves  of  this  fortress  ;  and  inasmuch  as  it 
is  a  desperate  attempt,  I  do  not  urge  it  on,  contrary 
to  will.  You  that  will  undertake  voluntarily,  poise 
your  firelock." 

At  the  word  every  firelock  was  poised.  "  Face 
to  the  right,"  cried  Allen;  and  placing  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  centre  file,  Arnold  keeping  emu- 
lously  at  his  side,  he  marched  to  the  gate.  It  was 
shut,  but  the  wicket  was  open.  The  sentry  snapped 
a  fuzee  at  him.  The  Americans  rushed  into  the  fort, 
darted  upon  the  guards,  and  raising  the  Indian  war 
whoop,  such  as  had  not  been  heard  there  since  the 
days  of  Montcalm,  formed  on  the  parade  in  hollow 


340  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  square,  to  face  each  of  the  barracks.  One  of  the 
'  sentries,  after  wounding  an  officer,  and  being  slightly 
wounded  himself,  cried  out  for  quarter  and  showed 
10-  the  way  to  the  apartment  of  the  commanding  officer. 
"  Come  forth  instantly,  or  I  will  sacrifice  the  whole 
garrison,"  cried  Ethan  Allen,  as  he  reached  the  door. 
At  this,  Delaplace,  the  commander,  came  out  un- 
dressed, with  his  breeches  in  his  hand.  "  Deliver  to 
me  the  fort  instantly,"  said  Allen.  "  By  what  au- 
thority?" asked  Delaplace.  "In  the  name  of  the 
great  Jehovah,  and  the  continental  congress  ! "  an- 
swered Allen.  Delaplace  began  to  speak  again,  but 
was  peremptorily  interrupted,  and  at  sight  of  Allen's 
drawn  sword  near  his  head,  he  gave  up  the  garrison, 
ordering  his  men  to  be  paraded  without  arms. 

Thus  was  Ticonderoga  taken  in  the  gray  of  the 
morning  of  the  tenth  of  May.  What  cost  the  British 
nation  eight  millions  sterling,  a  succession  of  cam- 
paigns and  many  lives,  was  won  in  ten  minutes  by  a 
few  undisciplined  men,  without  the  loss  of  life  or 
limb. 

The  Americans  gained  with  the  fortress  nearly 
fifty  prisoners,  more  than  a  hundred  pieces  of  cannon, 
one  thirteen  inch  mortar,  and  a  number  of  swivels, 
stores,  and  small  arms.  To  a  detachment  under  Seth 
Warner,  Crown  Point,  with  its  garrison  of  twelve 
men,  surrendered  upon  the  first  summons.  Another 
party  succeeded  in  making  a  prisoner  of  Skeene,  a 
dangerous  British  agent ;  and  in  getting  possession 
of  the  harbor  of  Skeenesborough. 

Messengers  carried  to  the  continental  congress 
news  of  the  great  acquisition  which  inaugurated  the 
day  of  its  assembling.  "  A  war  has  begun,"  wrote 


TICONDEROGA    TAKEN.  341 

Joseph  Warren  from  the  Massachusetts  congress ;  CHAP. 
"  but  I  hope  after  a  full  conviction,  both  of  our  abil-  - — r— 
itj  and  resolution  to  maintain  our  rights,  Britain 
will  act  with  necessary  wisdom ;  this  I  most  heartily 
wish,  as  I  feel  a  warm  affection  still  for  the  parent 
state." 

VOL.  vii.         29* 


CHAPTEE  XXXIII. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  IN  EUROPE. 
MAY  TO  JULY,  1775. 

CHAP.  THE  news  from  Lexington  surprised  London  in  the 

S55  last  days  of  May.     The  people  had  been  lulled  into 

1775.  a  belief,  that  the  ministry  indulged  in  menaces  only 

to   render   the   olive   branch   acceptable  ;    and   the 

measures  of  parliament  implied  confidence  in  peace. 

And  now  it  was  certain  that  war  had  begun,  that 

Britain  was  at  war  with  herself. 

The  Massachusetts  congress,  by  a  swift  packet  in 
its  own  service,  had  sent  to  England  a  calm  and  ac- 
curate statement  of  the  events  of  the  nineteenth  of 
April,  fortified  by  depositions,  with  a  charge  to  Ar- 
thur Lee  their  agent,  to  give  it  the  widest  circula- 
tion. These  were  their  words  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Britain :  "  Brethren,  we  profess  to  be  loyal  and  duti- 
ful subjects,  and  so  hardly  dealt  with  as  we  have 
been,  are  still  ready,  with  our  lives  and  fortunes,  to 
defend  the  person,  family,  crown,  and  dignity  of  our 
royal  sovereign.  Nevertheless,  to  the  persecution  and 
tyranny  of  his  cruel  ministry  .we  will  not  submit; 


THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  IN  EUROPE.    343 

appealing  to  Heaven  for  the  justice  of  our  cause,  we  CHAP. 
determine  to  die  or  be  free." 

Granville  Sharpe,  who  was  employed  in  the  ord- 
nance  department,  declined  to  take  part  in  sending 
stores  to  America,  and  after  some  delay,  threw  up 
his  employment. 

Lord  Chatham  was  the  real  conqueror  of  Canada 
for  England ;  and  Carleton  had  been  proud  to  take 
to  Quebec  as  his  aide  de  camp  Chatham's  eldest  son. 
But  it  was  impossible  for  the  offspring  of  the  elder 
Pitt  to  draw  his  sword  against  the  Americans ;  and 
his  resignation  was  offered,  as  soon  as  it  could  be 
done  without  a  wound  to  his  character  as  a  soldier. 

Admiral  Keppel,  one  of  the  most  gallant  officers 
in  the  British  navy,  expressed  his  readiness  to  serve, 
if  required,  against  the  ancient  enemies  of  England, 
but  asked  not  to  be  employed  in  America. 

An  inhabitant  of  London,  after  reading  morning 
prayers  in  his  family  as  usual,  closed  the  book  with 
a  face  of  grief,  and  to  his  children,  of  whom  Samuel 
Rogers,  the  poet,  was  one,  told  the  sad  tale  of  the 
murder  of  their  American  brethren. 

The  recorder  of  London  put  on  a  full  suit  of 
mourning,  and  being  asked  if  he  had  lost  a  relative 
or  friend,  answered,  "  Yes,  many  brothers  at  Lexing- 
ton and  Concord." 

Ten  days  before  the  news  arrived,  Lord  Effing- 
ham,  who  in  his  youth  had  been  prompted  by  mili- 
tary genius  to  enter  the  army,  and  had  lately  served 
as  a  volunteer  in  the  war  between  Russia  and  Tur- 
key, finding  that  his  regiment  was  intended  for 
America,  renounced  the  profession  which  he  loved, 
as  the  only  means  of  escaping  the  obligation  of  fight- 


344  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ing  against  the  cause  of  freedom.     This  resignation 

XXXIII 

— Y— '  gave  offence  to  the  court,  and  was  a  severe  rebuke  to 
Jj^5>  the  officers  who  did  not  share  his  scruple;  but  at 
London  the  Common  Hall,  in  June,  thanked  him  pub- 
licly as  "  a  true  Englishman ; "  and  the  guild  of  mer- 
chants in  Dublin  addressed  him  in  the  strongest 
terms  of  approbation. 

June  On  ^he  twenty-fourth  of  June,  the  citizens  of  Lon- 
24-  don,  agreeing  fully  with  the  letter  received  from  New 
York,  voted  an  address  to  the  king,  desiring  him  to 
consider  the  situation  of  the  English  people,  "who 
had  nothing  to  expect  from  America  but  gazettes  of 
blood,  and  mutual  lists  of  their  slaughtered  fellow- 
subjects."  And  again  they  prayed  for  the  dissolu- 
tion of  parliament,  and  a  dismission  for  ever  of  the 
present  ministers.  As  the  king  refused  to  receive 
this  address  on  the  throne,  it  was  never  presented ; 
but  it  was  entered  in  the  books  of  the  city  and  pub- 
lished under  its  authority. 

The  society  for  constitutional  information,  after  a 
special  meeting  on  the  seventh  of  June,  raised  a  hun- 
dred pounds,  "  to  be  applied,"  said  they,  u  to  the  re- 
lief of  the  widows,  orphans,  and  aged  parents  of  our 
beloved  American  fellow-subjects,  who,  faithful  to 
the  character  of  Englishmen,  preferring  death  to 
slavery,  were,  for  that  reason  only,  inhumanly  mur- 
dered by  the  king's  troops  at  Lexington  and  Con- 
cord." Other  sums  were  added;  and  an  account  of 
what  had  been  done  was  laid  before  the  world  by 
Home  Tooke  in  the  "  Public  Advertiser."  The  pub- 
lication raised  an  implacable  spirit  of  revenge. 
Three  printers  were  fined  in  consequence  one  hundred 
pounds  each ;  and  Home  was  pursued  unrelentingly 


THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  IN  EUROPE.    345 


by  Thurlow,  till  in  a  later  year  lie  was  convicted  be- 
fore  Lord  Mansfield  of  a  libel,  and  sentenced  to  pay 
a  fine  of  two  hundred  pounds  and  to  be  imprisoned    June. 
twelve  months.     Thurlow  even  asked  the  judge  to 
punish  him  with  the  pillory. 

It  was  Hutchinson,  whose  false  information  had 
misled  the  government.  The  moment  was  come 
when  he  was  to  lose  his  distinction  as  chief  counsellor 
to  the  ministers,  and  to  sink  into  insignificance.  A 
continent  was  in  arms,  and  the  prize  contended  for 
was  the  liberty  of  mankind;  but  Hutchinson  saw 
nothing  of  the  grandeur  of  the  strife,  saying  :  "  The 
country  people  must  soon  disperse,  as  it  is  the  season 
for  planting  their  Indian  corn,  the  chief  sustenance  of 
New  England." 

With  clearer  vision  Gamier  took  notice,  that  the 
Americans  had  acted  on  the  nineteenth  of  April,  after 
a  full  knowledge  of  the  address  of  the  two  houses  of 
parliament  to  the  king,  pledging  lives  and  fortunes 
for  the  reduction  of  America,  and  of  the  king's 
answer.  "  The  Americans,"  he  wrote  to  Vergennes, 
"  display  in  their  conduct,  and  even  in  their  errors, 
more  thought  than  enthusiasm,  for  they  have  shown 
in  succession,  that  they  know  how  to  argue,  to  nego- 
tiate, and  to  fight."  "  The  effects  of  General  Gage's 
attempt  at  Concord  are  fatal,"  said  Dartmouth,  who 
just  began  to  wake  from  his  dream  of  conciliation. 
"By  that  unfortunate  event,  the  happy  moment  of 
advantage  is  lost." 

The  condemnation  of  Gage  was  universal.  Many 
.people  in  England  were  from  that  moment  convinced, 
that  the  Americans  could  not  be  reduced,  and  that 
England  must  concede  their  independence.  The 


346  AMEKICAN   IKDEPEKDENCE. 

CHAP.  British   force,  if  drawn  together,  could  occupy  but 
—  —  a  few  insulated  points,  while  all  the  rest  would  be 


^  Distributed,  would  be  continually  harassed 
and  destroyed  in  detail. 

These  views  were  frequently  brought  before  Lord 
North.  That  statesman  was  endowed  with  strong 
affections,  and  was  happy  in  his  family,  in  his  fortune 
and  abilities.  In  his  public  conduct,  he,  and  he  alone 
among  ministers,  was  sensible  to  the  reproaches  of 
remorse  ;  and  he  cherished  the  sweet  feelings  of  hu- 
man kindness.  Appalled  at  the  prospect,  he  wished 
to  resign.  But  the  king  would  neither  give  him  a 
release,  nor  relent  towards  the  Americans.  Every 
question  of  foreign  policy  was  made  subordinate  to 
that  of  their  reduction.  The  enforcement  of  the  treaty 
of  Paris  respecting  Dunkirk,  was  treated  as  a  small 
matter.  The  complaints  of  France  for  the  wrongs 
her  fishermen  had  suffered,  and  the  curtailment  of 
her  boundary  in  the  fisheries  of  Newfoundland,  were 
uttered  with  vehemence,  received  with  suavity,  and 
recognised  as  valid.  How  to  subdue  the  rebels  was 
the  paramount  subject  of  consideration. 

The  people  of  New  England  had  with  one  im- 
pulse rushed  to  arms  ;  the  people  of  England  quite 
otherwise  stood  aghast,  doubtful  and  saddened,  un- 
willing to  fight  against  their  countrymen  ;  languid 
and  appalled  ;  astonished  at  the  conflict,  which  they 
had  been  taught  to  believe  never  would  come  ;  in  a 
state  of  apathy  ;  irresolute  between  their  pride  and 
their  sympathy  with  the  struggle  for  English  liber- 
ties. The  king  might  employ  emancipated  negroes, 
or  Indians,  or  Canadians,  or  Russians,  or  Germans  ; 


THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  IN  EUROPE.     347 


Englishmen  enough  to  cany  on  the  war  were  not  to 

be  engaged^  gr- 

ille ministers,  as  they  assembled  in  the  cabinet,  June 
on  the  evening  of  the  fourteenth  of  June,  were  in 
very  bad  humor  ;  Lord  North  grieved  at  the  pros- 
pect of  further  disagreeable  news.  The  most  promi- 
nent person  at  the  meeting  was  Sandwich,  who  had 
been  specially  sent  for  ;  a  man  of  talents,  greedy  alike 
of  glory  and  of  money,  but  incapable  of  taking  the 
lead,  for  he  was  incapable  of  awakening  enthusiasm. 
There  was  no  good  part  for  them  to  choose,  except  to 
retire,  and  leave  Chatham  to  be  installed  as  concili- 
ator ;  but  they  clung  to  their  places,  and  the  stubborn 
king,  whatever  might  happen,  was  resolved  not  to 
change  his  government.  There  existed  no  settled 
plan,  no  reasonable  project  ;  the  conduct  of  the  ad- 
ministration hardly  looked  beyond  the  day.  A  part 
of  them  threw  all  blame  on  th*e  too  great  lenity  of 
North. 

As  there  were  no  sufficient  resources  in  England 
for  the  subjugation  of  America,  some  proposed  to 
blockade  its  coast,  hold  its  principal  ports,  and  reduce 
the  country  by  starvation  and  distress.  But  zeal  for 
energetic  measures  prevailed,  and  the  king's*  advisers 
cast  their  eyes  outside  of  England  for  aid.  They 
counted  with  certainty  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Can- 
ada ;  they  formed  plans  to  recruit  in  Ireland  ;  they 
looked  to  Hanover  for  regiments  to  take  the  place  of 
British  garrisons  in  Europe.  The  Landgrave  of  Hesse 
began  to  think  his  services  as  a  dealer  in  troops  might 
be  demanded  ;  but  a  more  stupendous  scheme  was 
contemplated.  Russia  had  just  retired  from  the  war 
with  Turkey,  with  embarrassed  finances,  and  an  army 


348  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  of  more  than  three  hundred  thousand  men.     England 
5J3  hac[  courted  an  alliance  with  that  power,  as  a  coun- 
J  une    ^erpoise  to  ^ne  Bourbons  ;  had  assented  to  the  parti- 
tion of  Poland  ;  had  invited  and  even  urged  a  former 
Czar  to  exercise  a  controlling  influence  over  the  poli- 
tics of  Germany  ;  by  recent  demonstrations  and  good 
offices,  had  advanced  the  success  of  the  Russian  arms 
against  the  Ottoman  Porte.   The  empress  was  a  woman 
of  rare  ability ;  ambitious  of  conquest ;  equally  ambi- 
tious of  glory.    Her  army,  so  Poternkin  boasted,  might 
alone  spare  troops  enough  to  trample  the  Americans 
under  foot.     To  the  Russian  empress,  the  king  re- 
solved to  make  a  wholesale  application ;  and  to  the 
extent  of  his  wants,  to  buy  at  the  highest  rate  bat- 
talions of  Russian  serfs,  just  emancipated  by  their 
military  service  ;  Cossack  rangers  ;  Sclavonian  infan- 
try ;  light  troops  from  fifty  semi-barbarous  nationali- 
ties, to  crush  the  life  of  freedom  in  America.     The 
thought  of  appearing  as  the  grand  arbitress  of  the 
•world,  with  paramount  influence  in  both  hemispheres, 
was  to   dazzle   the   imagination  of  Catherine;    and 
lavish  largesses  were  to  purchase  the  approval  of  her 
favorites. 

This"  plan  was  not  suddenly  conceived ;  at  New 
York,  in  the  early  part  of  the  previous  winter,  it  had 
been  held  up  in  terror  to  the  Americans.  Success  in 
the  negotiation  was  believed  to  be  certain. 

But  the  contracting  for  Russian  troops,  their 
march  to  convenient  harbors  in  the  north,  and  their 
transport  from  the  Baltic  to  America,  would  require 
many  months  ;  the  king  was  impatient  of  delay.  A 
hope  still  lingered  that  the  Highlanders  and  others 
in  the  interior  of  North  Carolina,  might  be  induced 


THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  IN  EUROPE.    349 

to  rise,  and  be  formed  into   a  battalion.      Against  CHAP. 
Virginia,  whose  people  were  thought  to  exceed  all  ^<~- 
bounds  in  their  madness,  it  was  intended  to  employ   jline.' 
a  separate  squadron,  and  a  small  detachment  of  regu- 
lar troops.     Three  thousand  stand  of  arms,  with  two 
hundred  rounds  of  powder  and  ball  for  each  musket, 
together  with  four  pieces  of  light  artillery,  were  in- 
stantly shipped  for  the  use  of  Dunmore ;  and  as  white 
men  could  not  be  found  in  sufficient  numbers  to  use 
them,  the  king  rested  his  confidence   of  success  in 
checking  the  rebellion  on  the  ability  of  his  governor 
to  arm  Indians  and  negroes  enough  to  make  up  the 
deficiency.     This  plan  of  operations  bears  the  special 
impress  of  George  the  Third. 

At  the  north,  the  king  called  to  mind  that  he 
might  "  rely  upon  the  attachment  of  his  faithful 
allies,  the  Six  Nations  of  Indians,"  and  he  turned  to 
them  for  immediate  assistance.  To  insure  the  fulfil- 
ment  of  his  wishes,  the  order  to  engage  them  was  sent 
directly  in  his  name  to  the  unscrupulous  Indian  agent, 
Guy  Johnson,  whose  functions  were  made  independent 
of  Carleton.  "  Lose  no  time,"  it  was  said ;  "  induce 
them  to  take  up  the  hatchet  against  his  majesty's  re- 
bellious subjects  in  America.  It  is  a  service  of  very 
great  importance  ;  fail  not  to  exert  every  effort  that 
may  tend  to  accomplish  it ;  use  the  utmost  diligence 
and  activity." 

It  was  also  the  opinion  at  court,  that  "  the  next 
word  from  Boston  would  be  that  of  some  lively 
action,  for  General  Gage  would  wish  to  make  sure 
of  his  revenge." 

The  sympathy  for  America  which  prevailed  more 
and  more  in  England,  reached  the  king's  own  brother, 

VOL.    VII.  30 


350  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the  weak  but  amiable  duke  of  Gloucester.  In  July 
— . — •  he  crossed  the  channel,  with  the  view  to  inspect  the 
ljuly.'  citadels  along  the  eastern  frontier  of  France.  When 
he  left  Dover,  nothing  had  been  heard  from  America 
later  than  the  retreat  of  the  British  from  Concord, 
and  the  surprise  of  Ticonderoga.  Metz,  the  strongest 
place  on  the  east  of  France,  was  a  particular  object 
of  his  journey ;  and  as  his  tour  was  made  with  the 
sanction  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  he  was  received 
there  by  the  Count  de  Broglie  as  the  guest  of  the 
king:  Among  the  visitors  on  the  occasion,  came  a 
young  man  not  yet  eighteen,  whom  de  Broglie  loved 
with  parental  tenderness,  Gilbert  Motier  de  la  Fayette. 
His  father  had  fallen  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  in  the 
battle  of  Minden,  leaving  his  only  child  less  than  two 
years  old.  The  boyish  dreams  of  the  orphan  had 
been  of  glory  and  of  liberty ;  at  the  college  in  Paris, 
at  the  academy  of  Versailles,  no  studies  charmed 
him  like  tales  of  republics  ;  rich  by  vast  inheritances, 
and  married  at  sixteen,  he  was  haunted  by  a  passion 
to  rove  the  world  as  an  adventurer  in  quest  of  fame, 
and  the  opportunity  to  strike  a  blow  for  freedom. 
A  guest  at  the  banquet  in  honor  of  the  duke  of 
Gloucester,  he  listened  with  avidity  to  an  authentic 
version  of  the  uprising  of  the  New  England  husband- 
men. The  reality  of  life  had  now  brought  before 
him  something  more  wonderful  than  the  brightest  of 
his  visions  ;  the  youthful  nation  insurgent  against  op- 
pression and  fighting  for  the  right  to  govern  them- 
selves, took  possession  of  his  imagination.  He  in- 
quired ;  he  grew  warm  with  enthusiasm  ;  and  before 
he  left  the  table,  the  men  of  Lexington  and  Concord 
had  won  for  America  a  volunteer  in  Lafayette. 


THE  DAY  OF  LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD  IN  EUROPE.    351 

In  Paris,  wits,  philosophers,  and  coffee-house  poli-  CHAP. 
ticians,  were  all  to  a  man  warm  Americans,  consider-  ^ ^ 
ing  them  as  a  brave  people,  struggling  for  natural  1J1Jy  * 
rights,  and  endeavoring  to  rescue  those  rights  from 
wanton  violence.     Their  favorite  mode  of  reasoning 
was,  that  as  the  Americans  had  no  representatives  in 
parliament,  they  could  owe  no  obedience  to  British 
laws.     This  argument  they  turned  in  all  its  different 
shapes,  and  fashioned  into  general  theories. 

The  field  of  Lexington,  followed  by  the  taking  of 
Ticonderoga,  fixed  the  attention  of  the  government 
of  France.  From  the  busy  correspondence  between 
Vergennes  and  the  French  embassy  at  London,  it 
appeared,  that  the  British  ministry  were  under  a  de- 
lusion in  persuading  themselves  tha,t  the  Americans 
would  soon  tire ;  that  the  system  of  an  exclusively 
maritime  war  was  illusory,  since  America  could  so 
well  provide  for  her  wants  within  herself.  Franklin 
was  known  to  be  more  zealous  than  ever,  and  per- 
fectly acquainted  with  the  resources  of  Great  Britain  ; 
and  at  Versailles  he  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being 
endowed  by  Heaven  with  qualities  that  made  him  the 
most  fit  to  create  a  free  nation,  and  to  become  the 
most  celebrated  among  men. 

The  sagacity  of  Vergennes  traced  the  relation  of 
the  American  revolution  to  the  history  of  the  world. 
"  The  spirit  of  revolt,"  said  he,  "  wherever  it  breaks 
out,  is  always  a  troublesome  example.  Moral  mala- 
dies, as  well  as  those  of  the  physical  system,  can  be- 
come contagious.  We  must  be  on  our  guard,  that 
the  independence  which  produces  so  terrible  an  ex- 
plosion in  North  America,  may  not  communicate 
itself  to  points  that  interest  us  in  the  hemispheres. 


352  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  We  long  ago  made  up  our  own  mind  to  the  results 
— * —  which  are  now  observed ;  we  saw  with  regret  that 
lJuly.   the  wisis  was  drawing  near  ;  we  have  a  presentiment 
that  it  may  be  followed  by  more  extensive  conse- 
quences.   We  do  not  disguise  from  ourselves  the  aber- 
rations which  enthusiasm  can  encourage,  and  which 
fanaticism  can  effectuate." 

The  subject,  therefore,  grew  in  magnitude  and 
interest  for  the  king  and  his  cabinet.  The  contin- 
gent danger  of  a  sudden  attack  on  the  French  pos- 
sessions in  the  West  Indies,  required  precaution ;  and 
Louis  the  Sixteenth  thought  it  advisable  at  once  to 
send  an  emissary  to  America,  to  watch  the  progress 
of  the  revolution.  This  could  best  be  done  from  Eng- 
land ;  and  the  embassy  at  London,  as  early  as  the 
July  tenth  of  July,  began  the  necessary  preliminary  in- 
10-  quiries.  "  All  England,"  such  was  the  substance  of  its 
numerous  reports  to  Vergennes,  "  is  in  a  position,  from 
which  she  never  can  extricate  herself.  Either  all  rules 
are  false,  or  the  Americans  will  never  again  consent 
to  become  her  subjects." 

So  judged  the  statesmen  of  France,  on  hearing  of 
the  retreat  from  Concord,  and  the  seizure  of  Ticon- 
deroga. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE  SECOND  CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS. 
MAT,  1775. 

A.  FEW  hours  after  the  surrender  of  Ticonderoga,  CHAP. 
the  second  continental  congress  met  at  Philadelphia.  ^ — 
There  among  the  delegates,  appeared  Franklin  and 


Samuel  Adams  ;  John  Adams,  and  Washington,  and  10- 
Richard  Henry  Lee  ;  soon  joined  by  Patrick  Henry, 
and  by  George  Clinton,  Jay,  and  Jay's  college  friend, 
the  younger  Robert  R.  Livingston,  of  New  York. 
Whom  did  they  represent  ?  and  what  were  their 
functions  ?  They  were  committees  from  twelve  colo- 
nies, deputed  to  consult  on  measures  of  conciliation, 
with  no  means  of  resistance  to  oppression  beyond  a 
voluntary  agreement  for  the  suspension  of  importa- 
tions from  Great  Britain.  They  formed  no  confed- 
eracy ;  they  were  not  an  executive  government ;  they 
were  not  even  a  legislative  body.  They  owed  the 
use  of  a  hall  for  their  sessions  to  the  courtesy  of  the 
carpenters  of  the  city ;  there  was  not  a  foot  of  land 
on  which  they  had  the  right  to  execute  their  deci- 
sions ;  and  they  had  not  one  civil  officer  to  carry  out 

VOL.    VII.  30* 


354  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  their  commands,  nor  the  power  to  appoint  one.     Nor 
was  one  soldier  enlisted,  nor  one  officer  commissioned 


in  their  name.  They  had  no  treasury  ;  and  neither 
10.  authority  to  lay  a  tax,  nor  to  borrow  money.  They 
had  been  elected,  in  part  at  least,  by  tumultuary 
assemblies,  or  bodies  which  had  no  recognised  legal 
existence  ;  they  were  intrusted  with  no  powers  but 
those  of  counsel  ;  most  of  them  were  held  back  by 
explicit  or  implied  instructions  ;  and  they  repre- 
sented nothing  more  solid  than  the  unformed  opinion 
of  an  unformed  people.  Yet  they  were  encountered 
by  the  king's  refusal  to  act  as  a  mediator,  the  decision 
of  parliament  to  enforce  its  authority,  and  the  actual 
outbreak  of  civil  war.  The  waters  had  risen  ;  the  old 
roads  were  obliterated  ;  and  they  must  strike  out  a 
new  path  for  themselves  and  for  the  continent. 

The  exigency  demanded  the  instant  formation  of 
one  great  commonwealth  and  the  declaration  of  in- 
dependence. "  They  are  in  rebellion,"  said  Edmund 
Burke  ;  "  and  have  done  so  much  as  to  necessitate  them 
to  do  a  great  deal  more."  Independence  had  long 
been  the  desire  of  Samuel  Adams,  and  was  already 
the  reluctant  choice  of  Franklin,  and  of  John  Adams, 
from  a  conviction  that  it  could  not  ultimately  be 
avoided.  But  its  immediate  declaration  was  not  pos- 
sible. American  law  was  the  growth  of  necessity,  not 
of  the  wisdom  of  individuals.  It  was  not  an  acquisi- 
tion from  abroad  ;  it  was  begotten  from  the  American 
mind,  of  which  it  was  a  natural  and  inevitable,  but 
also  a  slow  and  gradual  development.  It  is  truly  the 
child  of  the  people,  an  emanation  from  its  will.  The 
sublime  thought  that  there  existed  a  united  nation, 
was  yet  to  spring  into  being,  to  liberate  the  public 


THE    SECOND    CONTINENTAL    CONGRESS.  355 

spirit  from  allegiance  to  the  past,  and  summon  it  to  CHAP. 
the  creation  of  a  state.    But  before  this  could  be  well  >  —  f^** 


done,  the  new  directing  intelligence  must  represent 
the  sum  of  the  intelligence  of  twelve  or  thirteen  10- 
provinces,  inhabited  by  men  not  of  English  ances- 
try only,  but  intermixed  with  French,  still  more  with 
Swedes,  and  yet  more  with  Dutch  and  Germans  ;  a 
state  of  society  where  Quakers,  who  held  it  wicked- 
ness to  %ht,  stood  over  against  Calvinists,  whose  re- 
ligious creed  encouraged  resistance  to  tyranny  ;  where 
freeholders,  whose  pride  in  their  liberties  and  con- 
fidence in  their  power  to  defend  the  fields  which  their 
own  hands  had  subdued,  were  checked  by  merchants 
whose  treasures  were  afloat,  and  who  feared  a  war  as 
the  foreshadowing  of  their  own  bankruptcy.  Mas- 
sachusetts might  have  come  to  a  result  with  a  short 
time  for  reflection  ;  but  congress  must  respect  masses 
of  men,  composed  of  planters  and  small  manufac- 
turers, of  artisans  and  farmers  ;  one-fifth  of  whom  had 
for  their  mother  tongue  some  other  language  than  the 
English.  Nor  were  they  only  of  different  nationali- 
ties. They  were  not  exclusively  Protestant  ;  and  those 
who  were  Protestants,  professed  the  most  different 
religious  creeds.  To  all  these  congress  must  have 
regard  ;  and  wait  for  the  just  solution  from  a  senti- 
ment superior  to  race  and  language,  planted  by  God 
in  the  heart  of  mankind.  The  American  constitution 
came  from  the  whole  people,  and  expresses  a  com- 
munity of  its  thought  and  will.  The  nation  proceeded 
not  after  the  manner  of  inventors  of  mechanisms,  but 
like  the  divine  architect  ;  its  work  is  self-made  ;  and  is 
neither  a  copy  of  any  thing  past,  nor  a  product  of  ex- 
ternal force,  but  an  unfolding  of  its  own  internal  nature. 


356  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  The  Americans  were  persuaded  that  they  were 
' — ^  set  apart  for  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  civil  and 
Ma7y5'  religious  liberty ;  chosen  to  pass  through  blessings  and 
10-  through  trials,  through  struggles  and  through  joy,  to 
the  glorious  fulfilment  of  their  great  duty  of  estab- 
lishing freedom  in  the  new  world,  and  setting  up  an 
example  to  the  old.  But  by  the  side  of  this  creative 
impulse,  the  love  of  the  mother  country  lay  deeply 
seated  in  that  immense  majority  who  were  the  de- 
scendants of  British  ancestry,  and  this  love  was 
strongest  in  the  part  of  the  country  where  the  col 
lision  had  begun.  The  attachment  was  moreover  jus- 
tified ;  for  the  best  part  of  their  culture  was  derived 
from  England,  which  had  bestowed  on  them  milder, 
more  tolerant,  and  more  equal  governments,  than  the 
distant  colonies  of  other  European  powers  had  ever 
known. 

When  congress  met,  it  was  as  hard  to  say  of  its 
members  as  of  their  constituents,  whether  they  were 
most  swayed  by  regard  for  the  country  from  which  the 
majority  of  them  sprung,  or  by  the  sense  of  oppression. 
The  parent  land  which  they  loved  was  an  ideal  Eng- 
land, preserving  as  its  essential  character,  through  all 
accidents  of  time  and  every  despotic  tendency  of  a 
transient  ministry,  the  unchanging  attachment  to 
liberty.  Of  such  an  England  they  cherished  the 
language,  the  laws,  and  the  people ;  and  they  would 
not  be  persuaded  that  independence  of  her  was  be- 
come the  only  security  for  the  preservation  of  their 
own  inherited  rights.  In  this  divided  state  of  their 
affections,  the  unprepared  ness  of  the  country  for  war, 
and  the  imperfection  of  the  powers  with  which  they 
were  intrusted,  devotedness  to  the  old  relations 


THE    SECOND    CONTINENTAL    CONGRESS.  357 

weighed  against  the  call  of  freedom  to  the  new.     The  CHAP. 

XXXIV 

conservative  feeling  still  maintained  its  energy,  and  ^~ 


forbade  any  change,  except  where  a  change  was  de- 
manded  by  instant  necessity.  10. 

They  came  together  thus  undecided,  and  they 
long  remained  undecided.  They  struggled  against 
every  forward  movement,  and  made  none  but  by 
compulsion.  Not  by  foresight,  nor  by  the  precon- 
ceived purpose  of  themselves  or  their  constituents,  but 
by  the  natural  succession  of  inevitable  events,  it  be- 
came their  office  to  cement  a  union  and  constitute  a 
nation. 

The  British  troops  from  Boston  had  invaded  the 
country,  had  wasted  stores  which  were  the  property 
of  the  province,  had  burned  and  destroyed  private 
property,  had  shed  innocent  blood;  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  had  justly  risen  in  arms,  accepted  aid 
from  the  neighboring  colonies,  and  besieged  the 
British  army.  At  once,  on  the  eleventh,  the  considera- 
tion  of  the  report  of  the  agents  of  congress  on  their 
petition  to  the  king,  gave  way  to  the  more  interesting 
and  more  important  narrative  of  the  events  of  the 
nineteenth  of  April,  and  their  consequences.  The 
members  listened  with  sympathy,  and  their  approval 
of  the  conduct  of  Massachusetts  was  unanimous.  But 
as  that  province,  without  directly  asking  the  continent 
to  adopt  the  army  which  she  had  assembled,  entreat- 
ed direction  and  assistance  ;  and  as  the  answer  might 
involve  an  ultimate  declaration  of  independence,  as 
well  as  the  immediate  use  of  the  credit  and  resources 
of  all  the  colonies,  the  subject  was  reserved  for  careful 
deliberation  in  a  committee  of  the  whole. 

On  the  thirteenth,  Lyman  Hall  presented  himself 


358  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  from   Georgia   as   a  delegate  for   the   parish  of  St. 

— v-J  John's,  and  was  gladly  admitted  with  the  right  to 

lMaj    vote,  except  when  the  question  should  be  taken  by 
13-     colonies. 

The  first  important  decision  of  congress  related 

May.  to  New  York.  The  city  and  county  on  the  fifteenth 
15>  asked  how  to  conduct  themselves  with  regard  to  the 
regiments  which  were  known  to  be  under  orders  to 
that  place ;  and  with  the  sanction  of  Jay  and  his 
colleagues,  they  were  instructed,  not  to  oppose  the 
landing  of  the  troops,  but  not  to  suffer  them  to  erect 
fortifications;  to  act  on  the  defensive,  but  to  repel 
force  by  force,  in  case  it  should  become  necessary  for 
the  protection  of  the  inhabitants  and  their  property. 

When  Edmund  Burke  heard  of  this  advice,  he 
expressed  surprise  at  the  scrupulous  timidity  which 
could  suffer  the  king's  forces  to  possess  themselves  of 
the  most  important  post  in  America.  But  in  the 
want  of  an  effective  military  organization,  of  artillery, 
and  ammunition,  no  means  existed  to  prevent  the 
disembarkation  of  British  regiments.  The  city  was 
at  the  mercy  of  the  power  which  commanded  the 
water ;  and  which,  on  any  sudden  conflict,  could  have 
sent  an  army  into  its  streets,  and  have  driven  the 
patriots  from  their  homes. 

But  the  advice  of  the  continental  congress  was 
pregnant  with  embarrassments,  for  it  recognised  the 
existing  royal  government  of  New  York,  and  toler- 
ated its  governor  and  all  naval  and  military  officers, 
contractors,  and  Indian  agents,  in  the  peaceful  dis- 
charge of  their  usual  functions.  The  rule  was  laid 
down  for  the  province,  before  its  own  congress  could 
come  together ;  and  when  they  assembled,  they  could 


THE    SECOND    CONTINENTAL    CONGRESS.  359 

but  conform  to  it.  All  parties  seemed  tacitly  to  agree  to  CHAP. 
a  truce,  which  was  to  adjourn  the  employment  of  force. 
Towards  the  royal  government  the  colonists  manifest- 
ed  courteous  respect ;  avoiding  every  decision  which 
should  specially  invite  attack  or  make  reconciliation 
impossible.  They  allowed  the  British  vessel  of  war, 
"  the  Asia,"  to  be  supplied  with  provisions ;  but  adopt- 
ed measures  of  restraint  in  the  intercourse  between 
the  ship  and  the  shore.  They  disapproved  the  act 
of  the  people  in  seizing  the  king's  arms.  To  Guy 
Johnson,  the  superintendent  of  the  Indians,  they  of- 
fered protection,  if  he  and  the  Indians  under  his 
superintendency  would  promise  neutrality.  They 
sent  to  Massachusetts  their  warmest  wishes  in  the 
great  cause  of  American  liberty,  and  made  it  their 
first  object  "to  withstand  the  encroachments  of 
ministerial  tyranny ; "  but  they,  at  the  same  time, 
u  labored  for  the  restoration  of  harmony  between  the 
colonies  and  the  parent  state,"  and  were  willing  to 
defer  decisive  action  till  every  opportunity  for  the 
recovery  of  peace  by  an  accommodation  should  have 
been  exhausted.  In  this  manner  the  aristocratic  por- 
tion of  the  friends  of  American  rights  in  the  province 
exercised  a  controlling  influence.  They  stood  before 
God  and  the  world  free  from  the  responsibility  of 
war,  having  done  every  thing  to  avoid  it,  except  to 
surrender  their  rights.  Of  all  the  provinces,  New 
York  was  in  its  acts  the  most  measured ;  consistently 
reluctant  to  believe  in  the  fatal  necessity  of  war,  but 
determined  if  necessary  to  defy  the  worst,  for  the  pre- 
servation of  liberty;  confident  that  in  the  hour  of 
need,  its  forbearance  and  moderation  would  secure 
the  union  of  its  people. 


360  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  These  were  the  considerations  which,  swayed  the 
— • — :  continental  congress  in  the  policy  which  it  dictated 
lMay.  to  New  York.  They  also  induced  John  Jay  of  that 

colony  to  make  the  motion  in  congress  for  a  second 

petition  to  the  king. 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

THE  REVOLUTION  EMANATES  FROM  THE  PEOPLE. 
MAY,  1775. 

THE  motion  of  Jay  was  for  many  days  the  subject  CHAP. 
of  private  and  earnest  discussion;   but  the  temper  — . — 
of  the   congress  was   still   irresolute,  when   on  the  ^y* 
eighteenth  of  May  they   received  the  news  of  the     18- 
taking  of  Ticonderoga.     The  achievement  was  not  in 
harmony  with  their  advice  to  New  York ;  they  for 
the  time  rejected  the  thought  of  invading  Canada, 
and  they  were  inclined  even  to  abandon  the  conquest 
already  made ;  though  as  a  precaution  they  proposed 
to  withdraw  to  the  head  of  Lake  George  all  the  cap- 
tured cannon  and  munitions  of  war,  which  on  the  resto- 
ration of  peace  were  to  be  scrupulously  returned. 

For  many  days  the  state  of  the  union  continued 
to  engage  the  attention  of  congress  in  a  committee 
of  the  whole.  The  bolder  minds,  yet  not  even  all 
the  delegates  from  New  England,  discerned  the  ten- 
dency of  events  towards  an  entire  separation  of  the 
colonies  from  Britain.  In  the  wide  division  of  opin- 
ions the  decision  appeared  for  a  time  to  rest  on  South 

VOL.  vn.  31 


362  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

I 

CHAP.  Carolina  ;  but  the  delegates  from  that  province,  no 
^v^  less  than  from  the  others  of  the  south,  like  the  central 


C°l°nie8j  nourished  the  hope  of  peace,  for  which  they 
desired  to  make  one  more  petition. 

Vain  illusion!  The  unappeasable  malice  of  the 
supporters  of  the  ministry  was  bent  on  the  most  des- 
perate and  cruel  efforts,  while  every  part  of  the  conti- 
nent rung  the  knell  of  colonial  subjection.  A  new 
nation  was  bursting  into  life.  Boston  was  so  strictly 
beleaguered,  that  it  was  only  from  the  islands  in  and 
near  the  harbor  that  fodder,  or  straw,  or  fresh  meat 
could  be  obtained  for  the  British  army.  On  Sunday 
May  morning,  the  twenty-first  of  May,  about  sunrise,  it 
was  discovered,  that  they  were  attempting  to  secure 
the  hay  on  Grape  Island.  Three  alarm  guns  were 
fired  ;  the  drums  beat  to  arms  ;  the  bells  of  Wey- 
mouth  and  Braintree  were  set  a  ringing;  and  the 
men  of  Weymouth,  and  Braintree,  and  Hingham, 
and  of  other  places,  to  the  number  of  two  thousand, 
swarmed  to  the  sea  side.  Warren,  ever  the  bravest 
among  the  brave,  ever  present  where  there  was  dan- 
ger, came  also.  After  some  delay,  a  lighter  and  a 
sloop  were  obtained  ;  and  the  Americans  eagerly 
jumped  on  board.  The  younger  brother  of  John 
Adams  was  one  of  the  first  to  push  off  and  land  on 
the  island.  The  English  retreated,  while  the  Ameri- 
cans set  fire  to  the  hay. 

May  On    the   twenty-fifth    of    May,    Howe,    Clinton, 

25'  and  Burgoyne,  arrived  with  re  enforcements.  They 
brought  their  angling  rods,  and  they  found  them- 
selves pent  up  in  a  narrow  peninsula  ;  they  had  be- 
lieved themselves  sure  of  taking  possession  of  a  con- 
tinent with  a  welcome  from  the  great  body  of  the 


THE    REVOLUTION    EMANATES    FROM    THE   PEOPLE.  363 

people,  and  they  had  no  reception  but  as  enemies,  CHAP. 
and  no  outlet  from  town  but  by  the  sea. 

Noddle's  Island,  now  East  Boston,  and  Hog  Island 
were  covered  with  hay  and  cattle,  with  sheep  and 
horses.  About  eleven  in  the  morning  of  the  twenty- 
seventh,  twenty  or  thirty  men  passed  from  Chelsea 
to  Hog  Island  and  thence  to  Noddle's  Island,  and 
drove  off  or  destroyed  a  great  deal  of  stock.  A 
schooner  and  a  sloop,  followed  by  a  party  of  marines 
in  boats,  were  sent  from  the  British  squadron  to  ar- 
rest them.  The  Americans  retreated  to  Hog  Island 
and  cleared  it  of  more  than  three  hundred  sheep,  be- 
sides cows  and  horses.  They  then  drew  up  on  Chel- 
sea Neck,  and  by  nine  in  the  evening  received  reen- 
forcements,  with  two  small  four  pounders.  Warren 
was  among  his  countrymen,  of  whom  Putnam  took  the 
command.  Cheered  on  by  the  presence  of  such  lead- 
ers, they  kept  up  an  attack  till  eleven  at  night,  when 
the  schooner  was  deserted.  At  daybreak  it  was 
boarded  by  the  provincials,  who  carried  off  four  four- 
pounders  and  twelve  swivels,  and  then  set  it  on  fire. 
The  English  lost  twenty  killed  and  fifty  wounded  ; 
the  provincials  had  but  four  wounded,  and  those 
slightly. 

The  New  Englanders  were  so  encouraged  by  these 
successes,  that  they  stripped  every  island  between 
Chelsea  and  Point  Alderton  of  cattle  and  forage; 
and  the  light-house  at  the  entrance  of  Boston  harbor 
was  burned  down.  They  were  as  ready  for  partisan 
enterprises  on  the  water  as  on  land ;  if  they  could 
only  get  gunpowder,  they  were  confident  of  driving 
off  the  British. 

The  same  daring  prevailed  on  the  northern  fron- 


364  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

xxxv.  fcier-      The   possession    of  Ticonderoga   and   Crown 
-^^  Point,  the  fortresses  round  which  hovered  the  chief 

1    rr  rv  p*  ' 

May.'  American  traditions  and  recollections  of  military  ser- 
vice, inflamed  the  imagination  and  stimulated  the 
enterprise  of  the  brave  settlers  of  Vermont.  A 
schooner,  called  for  the  occasion,  "Liberty,"  was 
manned  and  armed ;  and  Arnold,  who  had  had  ex- 
perience at  sea,  took  the  command.  With  a  fresh 
southerly  wind  he  readily  passed  the  lake ;  early  on 
May  the  morning  of  the  eighteenth,  at  the  head  of  a  party 
18'  in  boats,  he  surprised  a  sergeant  and  twelve  men,  and 
captured  them,  their  arms,  two  serviceable  brass  field 
pieces,  and  a  British  sloop  which  lay  in  the  harbor 
of  St.  John's.  In  about  an  hour  the  wind  suddenly 
shifted,  and,  with  a  strong  breeze  from  the  north, 
Arnold  returned  with  his  prizes. 

Ethan  Allen,  who  desired  not  to  be  outdone, 
thought  with  one  hundred  men  to  take  possession  of 
St.  John's.  The  scheme  was  wild,  and  he  was  com- 
pelled to  retire  before  a  superior  force ;  but  pre- 
serving his  boastful  courage,  he  wrote  to  congress : 
"  Had  I  but  five  hundred  men  with  me,  I  would  have 
marched  to  Montreal." 

The  whole  population  west  of  the  Green  Moun- 
tains was  interested  to  keep  possession  of  Ticonderoga. 
Every  man  within  fifty  miles  was  desired  by  Arnold 
to  repair  to  that  post  or  to  Crown  Point  with  in- 
trenching tools  and  all  the  powder  and  good  arms 
that  could  be  found.  At  the  rumor  of  the  proposed 
abandonment  of  their  conquest,  a  loud  protest  was 
uttered  unanimously  by  the  foresters.  "It  is  bad 
policy,"  said  Ethan  Allen,  "to  fear  the  resentment 
of  an  enemy."  "  Five  hundred  families/'  wrote  Ar- 


THE    REVOLUTION    EMANATES    FROM    THE    PEOPLE.  365 

nold,  "  would  be  left  at  tlie  mercy  of  the  king's  troops  CHAP. 
and  the  Indians."  The  Massachusetts  congress  re-  ^v^ 
monstrated ;  while  Connecticut,  with  the  consent  of 
New  York,  ordered  one  thousand  of  her  sons  to 
march  as  speedily  as  possible  to  the  defence  of  the  two 
fortresses.  The  command  of  Lake  Champlain  was  the 
best  security  against  an  attack  from  Indians  and  Cana- 
dians. Carleton,  the  governor  of  Canada,  was  using  his 
utmost  efforts  to  form  a  body  capable  of  protecting  the 
province.  Officers  from  the  French  Canadian  nobility 
were  taken  into  pay ;  the  tribes  nearest  to  the  frontiers 
of  the  English  settlements  were  tampered  with  ;  in 
north-western  New  York,  Guy  Johnson  was  employ- 
ing all  his  activity  in  insulating  the  settlers  in  Cherry 
Valley,  winning  the  favor  and  support  of  the  Six  Na- 
tions, and  duping  the  magistrates  of  Schenectady  and 
Albany ;  while  La  Corne  St.  Luc,  the  old  French  super- 
intendent of  the  Indians  of  Canada,  a  man  who  joined 
the  reflective  malice  of  civilization  to  the  remorseless 
cruelty  of  the  savage,  sent  belts  to  the  northern  tribes 
as  far  as  the  falls  of  St.  Mary  and  Michilimackinack, 
to  engage  the  ruthless  hordes  to  take  up  arms,  and 
distress  the  people  along  their  extended  frontier,  till 
they  should  be  driven  to  the  British  for  protection. 

Beyond  the  Alleghanies  a  commonwealth  was 
rising  on  the  banks  of  the  Kentucky  river,  and  by 
the  very  principles  on  which  it  was  formed,  it  uncon- 
sciously renounced  dependence  on  Britain. 

Henderson  and  his  associates  had,  during  the  win- 
ter, negotiated  a  treaty  with  the  Cherokees  for  the 
land  between  the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland  mountains, 
the  Cumberland  river,  and  the  Kentucky  river ;  on 
the  seventeenth  of  March  they  received  their  deed. 
VOL.  vii.  31  * 


366  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  To  this  territory,  Daniel  Boone,  with  a  body  of  en- 
^ — '  terprising  companions,  proceeded  at  once  to  mark 
YrJ5*  out  a  path  up  Powell's  valley;  and  through  moun- 
tains and  cane-brakes  beyond.  On  the  twenty-fifth  of 
the  month  they  were  waylaid  by  Indians,  who  killed 
two  men  and  wounded  another  very  severely.  Two 
days  later  the  savages  killed  and  scalped  two  more, 
"  Now,"  wrote  Daniel  Boone,  "  is  the  time  to  keep 
the  country  while  we  are  in  it.  If  we  give  way  now, 
it  will  ever  be  the  case,"  and  he  pressed  forward 
to  the  Kentucky  river.  There,  on  the  first  day  of 
April,  at  the  distance  of  about  sixty  yards  from  its 
west  bank,  near  the  mouth  of  Otter  Creek,  he  began 
a  stockade  fort ;  which  took  the  name  of  Boones- 
borough.  At  that  place,  while  the  congress  at  Phila- 
delphia was  groping  irresolutely  in  the  dark,  seven- 
May  teen  men  assembled  as  representatives  of  the  four 
"  towns  "  that  then  formed  the  seed  of  the  state. 
Among  these  children  of  nature  was  Daniel  Boone, 
the  pioneer  of  the  party.  His  colleague,  Richard 
Galloway,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Kentucky  and 
one  of  its  early  martyrs.  The  town  of  St.  Asaph  sent 
John  Floyd,  a  surveyor  who  emigrated  from  south- 
western Virginia ;  an  able  writer,  respected  for  his 
culture  and  dignity  of  manner ;  of  innate  good  breed  ' 
ing ;  ready  to  defend  the  weak ;  to  follow  the  trail  of 
the  savage ;  heedless  of  his  own  life  if  he  could  re- 
cover women  and  children  who  had  been  made  cap- 
tive; destined  to  do  good  service,  and  survive  the 
dangers  of  western  life  till  American  independence 
should  be  fought  for  and  won. 

From  the    settlement   at    Boiling   Spring   came 
James  Harrod,  the  same  who,  in  1774,  had  led  a 


THE    REVOLUTION    EMANATES    FROM    THE    PEOPLE.  367 

party  of  forty-one  to  Harrodsburg,  and  during  the  CHAP. 
summer  of  that  year,  had  built  the  first  log-cabin  in 
Kentucky;  a  tall,  erect,  and  resolute  backwoodsman; 
unlettered  but  not  ignorant;  intrepid  yet  gentle; 
revered  for  energy  and  for  benevolence ;  always  caring 
for  others,  as  a  father,  brother,  and  protector ;  unspar- 
ing of  himself;  never  weary  of  kind  offices  to  those 
around  him ;  the  first  to  pursue  a  stray  horse,  or  to 
go  to  the  rescue  of  prisoners  ;  himself  a  skilful  hunter, 
for  whom  the  rifle  had  a  companionship,  and  the  wil- 
derness a  charm ;  so  that  in  age  his  delight  was  in 
excursions  to  the  distant  range  of  the  receding  buffa- 
loes, till  at  last  he  plunged  into  the  remote  forest,  and 
was  never  heard  of  more. 

These  and  their  associates,  the  fathers  of  Ken-  May 
tucky,  seventeen  in  all,  met  on  the  twenty-third  of 
May,  beneath  the  great  elm  tree  of  Boonesborough, 
outside  of  the  fort,  on  the  thick  sward  of  the  fragrant 
white  clover.  The  convention  having  been  organized, 
prayers  were  read  by  a  minister  of  the  church  of 
England.  A  speech  was  then  delivered  to  the  con- 
vention in  behalf  of  the  proprietary  purchasers  of 
the  land  from  the  Cherokees : 

"  You  are  assembled  for  a  noble  purpose,  however 
ridiculous  it  may  seem  to  superficial  minds ;  a  work 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  well-being  of  this 
country  in  general,  and  of  each  and  every  individual. 
As  justice  is  and  must  be  eternally  the  same,  so  your 
laws,  founded  in  wisdom,  will  gather  strength  by 
time. 

"  You  are  placing  the  corner-stone  of  an  edifice, 
whose  superstructure  can  only  become  great  and  glo- 
rious in  proportion  to  the  excellence  of  its  foundation. 


368 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


xxxv   These  considerations,  gentlemen,  will  inspire  you  with 
~^ —  sentiments  worthy  of  the  grandeur  of  the  subject. 
May.'         "  One  common  danger  must  secure  to  us  harmony 
in  opinion.     If  any  doubt  remain  amongst  you  with 
respect  to  the  force  or  efficacy  of  whatever  laws  you 
now  or  hereafter  make,  be  pleased  to  consider,  that 
all  power  is  originally  in  the  people." 

"  We  represent  the  good  people  of  this  infant 
country,"  replied  the  convention  on  the  twenty-fifth, 
in  the  words  of  a  committee  of  which  Galloway  was 
the  head.  "  Deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the 
importance  of  the  trust  our  constituents  have  re- 
posed in  us,  we  will  attempt  the  task  with  vigor,  not 
doubting  but  unanimity  will  insure  us  success.  That 
we  have  a  right  as  a  political  body,  without  giving 
umbrage  to  Great  Britain,  or  any  of  the  colonies,  to 
frame  rules  for  the  government  of  our  little  society, 
cannot  be  doubted  by  any  sensible  or  unbiassed  mind." 
So  reasoned  the  fathers  of  Kentucky.  In  their 
legislation,  it  was  their  chief  care  "  to  copy  after  the 
happy  pattern  of  the  English  laws."  Their  colony 
they  called  Transylvania.  Their  titles  to  their  lands 
they  rested  on  a  deed  from  the  head  warriors  of 
the  Cherokees  as  the  first  owners  of  the  soil.  Dun- 
more  had  taunted  them  with  opening  "  an  asylum  for 
debtors  and  disorderly  persons  ; "  they  repelled  the 
calumny  by  instituting  courts  of  justice.  For  de- 
fence against  the  savages,  they  organized  a  militia ; 
they  discountenanced  profane  swearing  and  sabbath 
breaking  ;  they  took  thought  for  preventing  the 
waste  of  game,  and  improving  the  breed  of  horses ; 
and  by  solemn  agreement  they  established  as  the 
basis  of  their  constitution,  the  annual  choice  of  dele- 


THE    REVOLUTION    EMANATES    FROM    THE    PEOPLE.  369 

gates ;  taxes  to  be  raised  by  the  convention  alone ;  CHAP. 
salaries  to  be  fixed  by  statute  ;  land  offices  to  be  always 
open ;  and  u  a  perfect  religious  freedom,  and  general 
toleration.1'  Thus  the  pioneer  law-givers  for  the  west 
provided  for  freedom  of  conscience.  A  little  band  of 
hunters  put  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  countless 
hosts  of  civilization,  in  establishing  the  great  principle 
of  intellectual  freedom.  Long  as  the  shadows  of  the 
western  mountains  shall  move  round  with  the  sun, 
long  as  the  rivers  that  gush  from  those  mountains 
shall  flow  towards  the  sea,  long  as  seed  time  and  har- 
vest shall  return,  that  rule  shall  remain  the  law  of 
the  West.  When  Sunday  dawned,  the  great  tree 
which  had  been  their  council  chamber  became  their 
church.  Penetrated  with  a  sense  of  the  Redeemer's 
love,  they  lifted  up  their  hearts  to  God  in  prayer  and 
thanksgiving,  and  the  forest  that  was  wont  to  echo 
only  the  low  of  the  buffalo  and  the  whoop  of  the 
savage,  was  animated  by  the  voices  of  their  devotion. 
Thus  began  the  commonwealth  of  Kentucky ;  it  never 
knew  any  other  system  than  independence,  and  was 
incapable  of  any  thing  else. 

The  state,  now  that  it  has  become  great  and 
populous,  honors  the  memory  of  the  plain,  simple- 
hearted  .man,  who  is  best  known  as  its  pioneer.  He 
was  kindly  in  his  nature,  and  never  wronged  a  human 
being,  not  even  an  Indian,  nor,  indeed,  animal  life  of 
any  kind.  "  I  with  others  have  fought  Indians,"  he 
would  say,  "  but  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  killed 
one ;  if  I  did,  it  was  in  battle,  and  I  never  knew  it." 
He  was  no  hater  of  them,  and  never  desired  their  ex- 
termination. In  woodcraft  he  was  acknowledged  to 
be  the  first  among  men.  This  led  him  to  love  soli- 


370  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  tude,  and  habitually  to  hover  on  the  frontier,  with 
^-r-^>  no  abiding  place  ;  accompanied  by  the  wife  of  his 


^°  was  ^e  companion  of  his  long  life  and 
travel.  When  at  last  death  put  them  both  to  rest, 
Kentucky  reclaimed  their  bones  from  their  graves  far 
up  the  Missouri,  and  now  they  lie  buried  on  the  hill 
above  the  cliffs  of  the  Kentucky  river,  overlooking  the 
lovely  valley  of  the  capital  of  that  commonwealth. 
Around  them  are  emblems  of  wilderness  life  ;  the 
turf  of  the  blue  grass  lies  lightly  above  them  ;  and 
they  are  laid  with  their  faces  turned  upward  and 
westward,  and  their  feet  toward  the  setting  sun. 

A  similar  spirit  of  independence  prevailed  in  the 
highlands  which  hold  the  head  springs  of  the  Yadkin 
and  the  Catawba.  The  region  was  peopled  chiefly  by 
Presbyterians  of  Scotch  Irish  descent,  who  brought 
to  the  new  world  the  creed,  the  spirit  of  resistance, 
and  the  courage  of  the  covenanters. 

The  people  of  the  county  of  Mecklenburg  had 
carefully  observed  the  progress  of  the  controversy 
with  Britain  ;  and  during  the  winter,  political  meet- 
ings had  repeatedly  been  held  in  Charlotte.  That 
town  had  been  chosen  for  the  seat  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian college,  which  the  legislature  of  North  Carolina 
had  chartered,  but  which  the  king  had  disallowed  ; 
and  it  was  the  centre  of  the  culture  of  that  part  of 
the  province.  The  number  of  houses  in  the  village 
was  not  more  than  twenty  ;  but  the  district  was 
already  well  settled  by  herdsmen  who  lived  apart  on 
their  farms. 

Some  time  in  May,  1775,  they  received  the  news  of 
the  address,  which  in  the  preceding  February  had  been 
presented  to  the  king  by  both  houses  of  parliament, 


THE    REVOLUTION    EMANATES    FROM    THE    PEOPLE.  371 

and  which  declared  the  American  colonies  to  be  in  a  CHAP. 

XXXV 

state  of  actual  rebellion.  This  was  to  them  the  evi-  — ^ ; 
dence  that  the  crisis  in  American  affairs  was  come, 
and  the  people  proposed  among  themselves  to  abro- 
gate all  dependence  on  the  royal  authority.  But  the 
militia  companies  were  sworn  to  allegiance ;  and 
"  how,"  it  was  objected,  "  can  we  be  absolved  from 
our  oath?"  "The  oath,"  it  was  answered,  "binds 
only  while  the  king  protects."  At  the  instance  of 
Thomas  Polk,  the  commander  of  the  militia  of  the 
county,  two  delegates  from  each  company  were  called 
together  in  Charlotte,  as  a  representative  committee. 
Before  their  consultations  had  ended,  the  message  of 
the  innocent  blood  shed  at  Lexington  came  up  from 
Charleston,  and  inflamed  their  zeal.  They  were 
impatient  that  their  remoteness  forbade  their  direct 
activity ;  had  it  been  possible,  they  would  have 
sent  a  hundred  bullocks  from  their  fields  to  the  poor 
of  Boston.  No  minutes  of  the  committee  are 
known  to  exist,  but  the  result  of  their  deliberations, 
framed  with  superior  skill,  precision  of  language,  and 
calm  comprehensiveness,  remains  as  the  monument 
of  their  wisdom  and  their  courage.  Of  the  delegates 
to  that  memorable  assembly,  the  name  of  Ephraim 
Brevard  should  be  remembered  with  honor  by  his 
countrymen.  He  was  one  of  a  numerous  family  of 
patriot  brothers,  and  himself  in  the  end  fell  a  mar- 
tyr to  the  public  cause.  Trained  in  the  college  at 
Princeton,  ripened  among  the  brave  Presbyterians  of 
Middle  Carolina,  he  digested  the  system  which  was 
then  adopted,  and  which  formed  in  effect  a  declaration 
of  independence,  as  well  as  a  complete  system  of  gov- 
ernment. "  All  laws  and  commissions  confirmed  by 


372  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  or  derived  from  the  authority  of  the  king  or  parlia- 
— —  ment,"  such  are  the  bold  but  well  considered  words  of 
^ese  daring  statesmen,  "are  annulled  and  vacated ; 
all  commissions,  civil  and  military,  heretofore  granted 
by  the  crown  to  be  exercised  in  the  colonies,  are  void  ; 
the  provincial  congress  of  each  province,  under  the 
direction  of  the  great  continental  congress,  is  invested 
with  all  legislative  and  executive  powers  within  the 
respective  provinces,  and  no  other  legislative  or  ex- 
ecutive power  does  or  can  exist  at  this  time,  in  any 
part  of  these  colonies.  As  all  former  laws  are  now 
suspended  in  this  province,  and  the  congress  has  not 
yet  provided  others,  we  judge  it  necessary  for  the 
better  preservation  of  good  order,  to  form  certain 
rules  and  regulations  for  the  internal  government  of 
this  county,  until  laws  shall  be  provided  for  us  by 
the  congress." 

In  accordance  with  these  principles  the  freemen  of 
the  county  formed  themselves  into  nine  military  com- 
panies, and  elected  their  own  officers.  Judicial  pow- 
ers were  conferred  on  men  to  be  singled  out  by  the 
vote  of  the  companies,  two  from  each  of  them ;  the 
whole  number  of  eighteen  constituting  a  court  of 
appeal.  The  tenure  alike  of  military  and  civil 
officers  was  "the  pleasure  of  their  several  constitu- 
ents." All  public  and  county  taxes,  all  quitrents  to 
the  crown  were  sequestered ;  and  it  was  voted  that 
persons  receiving  new  commissions  from  the  king,  or 
exercising  old  ones,  should  be  dealt  with  as  enemies 
of  the  country. 

The  resolves  were  made  binding  on  all,  and  were 
to  be  enforced  till  the  provincial  congress  should  pro- 


THE    REVOLUTION    EMANATES    FROM    THE    PEOPLE.  373 

vide  otherwise,  or,  what  they  knew  would  never  take  CHAP 
place,  till  the  British  parliament  should  resign  its  ^y— - 
arbitrary  pretensions  with  respect  to  America.  At 
the  same  time  the  militia  companies  were  directed  to 
provide  themselves  with  arms,  and  Thomas  Polk  and 
Joseph  Kenedy  were  specially  appointed  to  purchase 
powder,  lead  and  flints. 

Before  the  month  of  May  had  come  to  an  end,  the 
resolutions  were  signed  by  Ephraim  Brevard,  as  clerk 
of  the  committee,  and  were  adopted  by  the  people 
with  the  determined  enthusiasm  which  springs  from 
the  combined  influence  of  the  love  of  liberty  and  of 
religion.  Thus  was  Mecklenburg  county,  in  North 
Carolina,  separated  from  the  British  empire.  The 
resolves  were  transmitted  with  all  haste  to  be  printed 
in  Charleston,  and  as  they  spread  through  the  South, 
they  startled  the  royal  governors  of  Georgia  and 
North  Carolina.  They  were  despatched  by  a  messen- 
ger to  the  continental  congress,  that  the  world  might 
know  their  authors  had  renounced  their  allegiance  to 
the  king  of  Great  Britain,  and  had  constituted  a  gov- 
ernment for  themselves. 

The  messenger  stopped  on  his  way  at  Salisbury, 
and  there,  to  a  crowd  round  the  court-house,  the  re- 
solves were  read  and  approved.  The  western  coun- 
ties were  the  most  populous  part  of  North  Carolina ; 
and  the  royal  governor  had  flattered  himself  and  the 
king,  with  the  fullest  assurances  of  their  support-. 
"  I  have  no  doubt,"  said  he,  u  that  I  might  command 
their  best  services  at  a  word  on  any  emergency.  I 
consider  I  have  the  means  in  my  own  hands  to  main- 
tain the  sovereignty  of  this  country  to  my  royal  mas- 
ter in  all  events."  And  now  he  was  obliged  to  trans- 

VOL  vii.        32 


374  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE, 

CHAP,  mit  the  deliberate,  consistent,  and  well-considered 
v— Y— '  resolutions  of  Mecklenburg,  which  he  described  as 
^e  Boldest  °f  aU,  "most  traitorously  declaring  the 
entire  dissolution  of  the  laws  and  constitution,  and 
setting  up  a  system  of  rule  and  regulation  subversive 
of  his  Majesty's  government." 


CHAPTEE    XXXVI. 


CONGRESS  OFFERS  TO  NEGOTIATE  WITH  THE  KING. 
MAY,  1775. 

FAE  different  was  the  spirit  of  the  continental  con-  CHAR 
gress.  The  unexpected  outbreak  of  war  compelled 
them  to  adopt  some  system  of  defence  ;  but  many  of 
its  members  still  blinded  themselves  with  the  hope  of 
reconciliation,  and  no  measure  for  the  vigorous  prose- 
cution of  hostilities  could  be  carried  with  unanimity, 
except  after  the  concession  of  a  second  petition  to  the 
king. 

Washington  foresaw  the  long  and  bloody  contest 
which  must  precede  the  successful  vindication  of  the 
liberties  of  America.  Before  the  excursion  to  Con- 
cord he  had  avowed  to  his  friends  "  his  full  intention 
to  devote  his  life  and  fortune"  to  the  cause;  and  he 
manifested  his  conviction  of  the  imminence  of  danger 
by  appearing  at  the  debates  in  his  uniform  as  an 
officer.  He  had  read  with  indignation  the  taunts 
uttered  in  parliament  on  the  courage  of  his  country- 
men ;  he  now  took  a  personal  pride  in  the  rising  of 


376  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAR  New  England,  and  the  precipitate  retreat  of  Percy, 
which  he  thought  might  "  convince  Lord  Sandwich 
that  the  Americans  would  fight  for  their  liberties  and 
property."  "Unhappy  it  is,"  said  he,  "to  reflect, 
that  a  brother's  sword  has  been  sheathed  in  a 
brother's  breast,  and  that  the  once  happy  and  peace- 
ful plains  of  America  are  either  to  be  drenched  with 
blood,  or  inhabited  by  slaves.  Sad  alternative  !  But 
can  a  virtuous  man  hesitate  in  his  choice  ? "  Wash- 
ington never  hesitated  in  his  choice ;  but  he  was  too 
modest  to  demand  a  deference  to  his  opinion,  and  too 
sincerely  a  friend  to  peace  to  suppress  any  movement 
that  promised  its  restoration. 

The  delegates  from  New  England,  especially  those 
from  Massachusetts,  could  bring  no  remedy  to  the 
prevailing  indecision  ;  for  they  suffered  from  insinua- 
tions, that  they  represented  a  people  who  were  repub- 
licans in  their  principles  of  government  and  fanatics 
in  their  religion ;  and  they  wisely  avoided  the  appear- 
ance of  importunity  or  excess  in  their  demands. 

As  the  delegates  from  South  Carolina  declined 
the  responsibility  of  a  decision,  which  would  have 
implied  an  abandonment  of  every  hope  of  peace, 
there  could  be  no  efficient  opposition  to  the  policy  of 
again  seeking  the  restoration  of  American  liberty 
through  the  mediation  of  the  king.  This  plan  had 
the  great  advantage  over  the  suggestion  of  an  imme- 
diate separation  from  Britain,  that  it  could  be  boldly 
promulgated,  and  was  in  harmony  with  the  general 
wish ;  for  the  people  of  the  continent,  taken  collec- 
tively, had  not  as  yet  ceased  to  cling  to  their  old  re- 
lations with  their  parent  land,  and  sp  far  from  schem- 
ing independence,  now  that  independence  was  become 


CONGRESS    OFFERS    TO    NEGOTIATE.  377 

inevitable,  they  postponed  the  irrevocable  decree  and  CHAP. 
still  longed  that  the  necessity  for  it  might  pass  by. 

In  this  state  of  things  the  man  for  the  occasion 
was  Dickinson,  who  wanted  nothing  but  energy  to 
secure  to  him  one  of  the  highest  places  among  the 
statesmen  of  the  world.  Deficient  in  that  great  ele- 
ment of  character  which  forms  the  junction  between 
intelligence  and  action,  his  theoretic  views  on  the 
rights  of  America  and  the  just  extent  of  her  claims, 
coincided  with  those  of  the  most  zealous.  Now 
that  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  had  been  im- 
paired, he  did  not  ask  merely  relief  from  parliamen- 
tary taxation ;  he  required  security  against  the  en- 
croachments of  parliament  on  charters  and  laws.  The 
distinctness  with  which  he  spoke,  satisfied  Samuel 
Adams  himself,  who  has  left  on  record  that  the 
Farmer  was  a  thorough  Bostonian. 

Moreover,  the  province  of  which  he  was  the  repre- 
sentative, was  the  third  in  rank  for  numbers,  wealth, 
and  importance ;  its  system  of  government  was  emi- 
nently democratic ;  its  capital  city,  distinguished  by 
the  presence  of  the  congress,  was  the  largest  in  the 
land.  The  honest  scruples  of  the  Quakers  merited 
consideration.  The  proprietary  and  his  numerous 
and  powerful  friends,  rallied  a  party  which  offered  all 
its  influence  to  promote  a  successful  intercession  with 
the  king ;  and  the  instructions  of  Pennsylvania  to  its 
delegates  in  congress  looked  primarily  to  a  continued 
union  with  Britain. 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  fiery  Mifilin,  who  was  like- 
wise a  member  from  Pennsylvania,  expressed  impa- 
tience.    Franklin  also  knew  that  every  method   of 
peaceful  entreaty  had  been  exhausted.     But  though 
VOL.  vii.  32* 


378  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP  decided  in  his  opinions,  and  open  in  expressing  them, 
he  betrayed  no  desire  to  rule  the  intention  of  congress, 
wising  rather  to  leave  that  body  to  pursue  its  own 
plans,  unbiassed  by  his  complaints  or  persuasions. 
Yet  he  never  hesitated  to  support  the  boldest  meas- 
ures, and  to  reprove  irresoluteness  and  delay.  "  Make 
yourselves  sheep,"  he  would  say,  "  and  the  wolves  will 
eat  you."  And  again,  u  God  helps  them  who  help 
themselves ; "  and  insisting  on  the  absolute  necessity 
of  armed  resistance,  "  united,"  he  said,  "  we  are  well 
able  to  repel  force  by  force."  Thus  "  he  encouraged 
the  revolution,"  yet  wishing  independence,  not  as  a 
victory  of  one  party  over  another,  but  as  the  sponta- 
neous action  of  a  united  people. 

Dickinson,  therefore,  for  the  time,  exercised  an  un- 
bounded sway  over  the  deliberations  of  congress,  and 
had  no  cause  to  fear  an  effective  opposition,  when  he 
seconded  the  motion  of  Jay  for  one  more  petition  to 
the  king.  For  a  succession  of  days  the  state  of  the 
colonies  continued  to  be  the  subject  of  earnest  dis- 
cussion ;  but  through  all  the  vacillations  of  hesitancy, 
the  determination  to  sustain  Massachusetts  was  never 
for  a  moment  in  doubt.  This  appeared  on  the 
twenty-fourth.  On  that  day  the  chair  of  the  presi- 
dent becoming  vacant  by  the  departure  of  Peyton 
Randolph  for  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  John  Han- 
cock, of  Massachusetts,  was  elected  unanimously  in 
his  stead,  and  Harrison,  of  Virginia,  who  was  classed 
among  the  conservative  members,  conducted  him  to 
the  chair,  saying  :  "  We  will  show  Britain  how  much 
we  value  her  proscriptions."  For  the  proscription  01 
Samuel  Adams  and  Hancock  had  long  been  known, 
though  it  had  not  yet  been  proclaimed. 


CONGRESS    OFFERS    TO    NEGOTIATE.  379 

No  progress  could  be  made  in  authorizing  vigor-  CHAP 
cms  measures  of  defence,  until  the  long  deliberations 
in  the  committee  of  the  whole  had  resulted  in  a  com- 
promise.  Then,  on  Thursday,  the  twenty-fifth,  direc- 
tions were  given  to  the  provincial  congress  in  New 
York  to  preserve  the  communication  between  the  city 
of  New  York  and  the  country,  by  fortifying  posts  at 
the  upper  end  of  the  island,  near  King's  Bridge,  and 
on  each  side  of  Hudson  river,  in  the  Highlands.  A 
post  was  also  to  be  taken  at  or  near  Lake  George. 

On  that  same  day,  while  Howe,  Clinton  and  Bur- 
goyne  were  entering  Boston  harbor,  Duane,  a  dele- 
gate from  New  York,  moved  in  the  committee  of  the 
whole,  "  the  opening  of  a  negotiation  in  order  to 
accommodate  the  unhappy  disputes  subsisting  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  the  colonies,  and  that  this 
be  made  a  part  of  the  petition  to  the  king."  "  A  ne- 
gotiation once  begun,"  said  Golden,  on  hearing  the 
news,  "  will  give  the  people  time  to  cool  and  feel  the 
consequence  of  what  they  have  already  done,  before 
the  whole  colonies  become  equally  desperate."  The 
dangerous  proposal  produced  a  warm  debate,  which, 
at  the  adjournment,  was  not  concluded. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twenty-sixth,  the  delegates 
from  New  Jersey  presented  the  vote  of  the  assembly 
of  that  colony,  refusing  to  consider  Lord  North's 
proposition  as  contained  in  the  resolution  of  the  house 
of  commons,  and  consigning  the  subject  to  the  conti- 
nental congress.  The  communication  was  referred 
to  the  committee  of  the  whole;  which  was  thus 
officially  in  possession  of  the  offer  of  the  minister. 
The  debate  of  the  preceding  day  was  renewed,  and 
the  timid  party  prevailed.  The  committee  rose  and 


380  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

xxxvi  subraitted  their  report ;  upon  which  it  was  resolved, 
^"^  "  that  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  colonies  in 
May.*  safety  against  every  attempt  to  carry  the  unconstitu- 
tional and  oppressive  acts  into  execution  by  force  of 
arms,  these  colonies  be  immediately  put  into  a  state 
of  defence;  but  that  with  a  sincere  desire  of  con- 
tributing by  all  the  means,  not  incompatible  with  a 
just  regard  for  the  undoubted  rights  and  true  in- 
terests of  these  colonies,  to  the  promotion  of  this 
most  desirable  reconciliation,  an  humble  and  dutiful 
petition  be  presented  to  his  majesty." 

To  this  extent  the  vote  was  unanimous.  But  the 
additional  motion  of  Duane  was  carried  against  an 
unyielding  opposition,  and  did  not  advance  the  pros- 
pect of  a  peaceful  solution.  The  acts  altering  the 
charter  and  laws  of  Massachusetts,  were  among  those 
which  the  king  was  determined  never  to  give  up ; 
and  from  the  first  commencement  of  the  conflict,  he 
declared  himself  more  ready  to  concede  independence 
to  victorious  arms,  than  wound  his  own  sentiment  of 
honor  by  a  voluntary  surrender  of  the  measures 
which  he  had  adopted  for  the  government  of  a  rebel- 
lious colony.  The  motion  of  Duane  had  no  practical 
significance,  unless  it  was  intended  to  accept  the  propo- 
sition of  Lord  North  as  the  basis  for  an  agreement ;  but 
the  majority  would  never  consent  to  sacrifice  the  char- 
ter of  Massachusetts.  The  position  which  they  chose 
was,  therefore,  weak  and  untenable.  By  their  waver- 
ing they  led  the  people  to  neglect  that  steady  system 
of  resistance,  which  nothing  but  independence  could 
justify  or  reward,  and  to  wait  listlessly  for  an  accom- 
modation ;  while  the  king  gained  a  respite,  which  he 
employed  with  singleness  of  purpose  in  collecting 


CONGRESS    OFFERS    TO    NEGOTIATE.  381 

forces  for  subduing  his  revolted  subjects.     They  di-  CHAP. 
rected  preparations  for  defence,  and  yet  they  would 
not  authorize  the  several  colonies  to  institute  govern-    May  " 
ments  of  their  own.     As  a  consequence,  the  people 
were  not  fully  roused  to  the  necessity  of  immediate 
and  united  action;  and  the   officers   of  the  crown, 
wherever  they  practised  the  duplicity  of  moderation, 
were  able  to  maintain  themselves  in  authority  and 
continue  their  intrigues. 

All  this  while,  congress  had  misgivings  that  all 
their  forbearance  would  be  fruitless.  They  counselled 
New  York  to  arm  and  train  its  militia,  and  with  vigor- 
ous perseverance  to  embody  men  for  the  protection  of 
the  inhabitants  of  that  city  against  the  invasion  of 
troops,  alleging  as  a  reason  that "  it  was  very  uncertain 
whether  their  earnest  endeavors  to  accommodate  the 
unhappy  differences  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
colonies,  by  conciliatory  measures,  would  be  suc- 
cessful." 

The  support  of  the  Canadians  was  also  entreated, 
for  it  was 'recognised  that  the  impending  conflict  was 
not  a  war  of  protestantism,  but  of  humanity.  On 
the  first  day  of  May,  the  Quebec  act  went  into 
effect ;  and  on  the  twenty-ninth,  the  American  con- 
gress, by  the  hand  of  Jay,  addressed  the  Canadians : 
"  We  most  sincerely  condole  with  you  on  the  arrival 
of  that  day,  in  the  course  of  which  the  sun  could  not 
shine  on  a  single  freeman  in  all  your  extensive  do- 
minions. By  the  introduction  of  your  present  form 
of  government,  or  rather  present  form  of  tyranny, 
you  and  your  wives  and  your  children  are  made 
slaves."  Appeals  were  also  directed  to  their  pride, 
their  affection  for  France,  their  courage,  and  their  re- 


382  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  gard  for  the  common  welfare  ;  but  no  adequate  mo- 
tive  for  rising  was  set  before  them.  As  the  congress 
intended  still  to  petition  the  king,  they  could  on]y 
request  some  vague  co-operation  in  imploring  the 
attention  of  their  sovereign ;  a  request  which  at 
most  was  only  fitted  to  secure  neutrality.  The  Cana- 
dians, as  Frenchmen,  feared  not  taxation  by  parliament, 
but  the  haughty  dominion  of  their  conquerors ;  as 
Catholics  they  dreaded  the  exclusive  rule  of  Protest- 
ants. A  union  for  independence  with  a  promise  of 
institutions  of  their  own,  might  have  awakened  their 
enthusiasm ;  but  to  them  the  Quebec  act  was  an  im- 
provement on  their  former  condition;  and  they  ab- 
horred it  less  than  a  fraudulent  representative  system 
like  that  of  Ireland.  Their  sympathy  for  the  insur- 
gents sprung  mainly  from  a  recollection  of  their  own 
sufferings  under  the  twelve  years'  tyranny  which  had 
gone  by ;  and  could  be  revived  and  sustained  by  noth- 
ing less  than  a  total  separation  from  English  rule. 

The  day  after  the  adoption  of  Jay's  address  to 
the  Canadians,  Willing  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  those 
who  most  struggled  to  thwart  every  step  towards 
independence,  brought  before  congress  a  paper,  con- 
taining propositions  from  Lord  North,  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Grey  Cooper,  his  under  secretary  of  the 
treasury.  As  the  king  had  refused  to  treat  with 
an  American  congress,  the  writing  had  no  signature ; 
but  its  authenticity  was  not  questioned.  By  an  ap- 
peal to  affection  for  the  king  and  country,  it  pressed 
earnestly  the  acceptance  of  the  overture  contained  in 
the  resolution  of  the  house  of  commons.  It  was  de- 
clared that  the  terms  were  honorable  for  Great 
Britain  and  safe  for  the  colonies ;  and  that  neither 


CONGRESS    OFFERS    TO    NEGOTIATE.  383 

king,  nor  ministry,  nor  parliament,  nor  the  nation,  CHAP. 
would  admit  of  further  relaxation ;  but  that  "  a  per-  *-~v— ' 
fectly  united  ministry  would,  if  necessary,  employ  the 
whole  force  of  the  kingdom  to  reduce  the  rebellious 
and  refractory  provinces  and  colonies."  The  arro- 
gance of  the  language  in  which  this  ultimatum  was 
couched,  should  have  ensured  its  prompt  and  unani- 
mous rejection,  and  have  nerved  congress  to  imme- 
diate decision.  But  it  was  laid  on  the  table  of 
the  body,  which  was  bent  on  a  petition  to  the  king, 
and  "  a  negotiation  "  with  his  ministers.  The  month 
of  May  went  by,  and  congress  had  not  so  much  as 
given  to  Massachusetts  its  advice  that  that  province 
should  institute  a  government  of  its  own ;  it  author- 
ized no  invasion  of  Canada,  and  only  yielded  its  aa- 
sent  to  the  act  of  Connecticut  in  garrisoning  Ticon- 
deroga  and  Crown  Point.  If  great  measures  are  to 
be  adopted,  the  impulse  must  come  from  without. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 


MASSACHUSETTS  ASKS  FOR  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  AS  COM- 
MANDER IN  CHIEF. 


JUNE  1 — JUNE  17,  1775. 
CHAP.  IN  obedience  to  the  injunctions  of  Lord  North  and 

XXXVII 

' — ^  Lord  Dartmouth,  who  earnestly  wished  that  the  ef- 
Vune.  for^  snoilld.  be  made  to  reconcile  some  one  of  the 
several  colonial  assemblies  to  their  insidious  offer, 
the  first  day  of  June,  1775,  saw  the  house  of  bur- 
gesses of  Virginia  convened  for  the  last  time  by  a 
British  governor.  Peyton  Randolph,  the  speaker, 
who  had  been  attending  as  president  the  congress  at 
Philadelphia,  arrived  at  Williamsburg  with  an  escort 
of  independent  companies  of  horse  and  foot,  which 
eclipsed  the  pomp  of  the  government,  and  in  the  eyes 
of  the  people  raised  the  importance  of  the  newly 
created  continental  power.  The  session  was  opened 
by  a  speech  recommending  accommodation  on  the 
narrow  basis  of  the  resolve  which  the  king  had  ac- 
cepted. But  the  moment  chosen  for  the  discussion 
was  inopportune  ;  Dunmore's  menace  to  raise  the 
standard  of  a  servile  insurrection,  and  set  the  slaves 
upon  their  masters,  with  British  arms  in  their  hands, 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER    IN    CHIEF.  385 

filled  the  South  with  horror  and  alarm.     Besides,  the  xxxvii 
retreat  from  Concord  raised  the  belief  that  the  Amer-  ^ 
ican  forces  were  invincible ;   and  the  spirit  of  resist-   June, 
ance  had  grown  so  strong,  that  some  of  the  burgesses 
appeared  in  the  uniform  of  the  recently  instituted 
provincial  troops,  wearing  a  hunting  shirt  of  coarse 
linen  over  their  clothes,  and  a  woodman's  axe  by 
their  sides. 

The  'great  civilian  of  Virginia  came  down  from 
Albemarle  with  clear  perceptions  of  the  path  of  pub- 
lic duty.  When  parliament  oppressed  the  colonies  by 
the  imposing  of  taxes,  Jefferson  would  have  been 
content  with  their  repeal  ;  when  the  charter  and 
laws  of  Massachusetts  were  mutilated  and  set  aside 
by  the  same  authority,  he  still  hoped  for  conciliation 
through  the  wisdom  of  Chatham.  But  after  Lex- 
ington green  had  been  stained  with  blood,  Jefferson 
would  no  longer  accept  acts  of  repeal,  unless  accom- 
panied by  security  against  future  aggression. 

The  finances  of  Virginia  were  at  this  time  much 
embarrassed ;  beside  her  paper  currency  afloat,  she 
was  burdened  with  the  undischarged  expenses  of  the 
Indian  war  of  the  last  year.  The  burgesses  approved 
the  conduct  of  that  war,  and  provided  the  means  of 
defraying  its  cost ;  but  the  governor  would  not  pass 
their  bill,  because  it  imposed  a  specific  duty  of  five 
pounds  on  the  head,  about  ten  per  cent,  on  the  value, 
of  every  slave  imported  from  the  "West  Indies.  The 
last  exercise  of  the  veto  power  by  the  king's  repre- 
sentative in  Virginia  was  in  favor  of  the  slave 
trade. 

The  assembly,  having  on  the  fifth  thanked  the 
delegates  of  the  colony  to  the  first  congress,  prepared 
VOL.  vn.  33 


386  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

(HAP.  to  consider  the  proposal  of  the  ministers.     The  gov- 

xxxvu  r      r  o 

— • —  ernor  grew  uneasy,  and  sent  them  an  apology  for  his 
June.'  removal  of  the  fifteen  half  barrels  of  powder  belong- 
ing to  the  province.  "  I  was  influenced  in  this,"  said 
he,  in  a  written  message,  "  by  the  best  of  motives," 
and  he  reminded  them  that  he  had  ventured  his  life 
in  the  service  of  Virginia.  But  the  burgesses  took 
testimony  relating  to  the  transaction,  which  proved 
conclusively  his  open  avowal  of  an  intention  to  raise, 
free,  and  arm  slaves.  Meantime  their  consultations 
extended  through  several  days,  and  Jefferson  was 
selected  to  draft  their  reply. 

While  the  house  was  thus  engaged,  Duumore 
received  an  express  from  Gage  to  acquaint  him  of 
his  intention  to  publish  a  proclamation,  proscribing 
Samuel  Adams  and  Hancock ;  and  fearing  he  might 
be  seized  and  detained  as  a  hostage,  he  suddenly, 
in  the  night  following  the  seventh  of  June,  with- 
drew from  the  capital,  and  went  on  board  the 
"Fowey"  man-of-war,  at  York.  He  thus  left  the 
Ancient  Dominion  in  the  undisputed  possession  of 
its  own  inhabitants,  as  effectually  as  if  he  had  ab- 
dicated all  power  for  the  king ;  giving  as  a  reason  for 
his  flight,  his  apprehension  of  "  falling  a  sacrifice  to 
the  daringness  and  atrociousness,  the  blind  and  un- 
measurable  fury  of  great  numbers  of  the  people." 

The  burgesses  paid  no  heed  to  his  angry  words, 
but  when  they  had  brought  their  deliberations  to  a 
close,  they,  on  the  twelfth  of  June,  addressed  to  him 
as  their  final  answer,  that  u  next  to  the  possession  of 
liberty,  they  should  consider  a  reconciliation  as  the 
greatest  of  all  human  blessings,  but  that  the  resolution 
of  the  house  of  commons  only  changed  the  form  of 


WASHINGTON   AS    COMMANDER   IN    CHIEF.  387 

oppression,  without  lightening  its  burdens ;  that  gov-  CHAP. 
ernment  in  the  colonies  was  instituted  not  for  the  ^ — 
British  parliament,  but  for  the  colonies  themselves  ; 
that  the  British  parliament  had  no  right  to  meddle 
with  their  constitution,  or  prescribe  either  the  number, 
or  the  pecuniary  appointments  of  their  officers  ;  that 
they  had  a  right  to  give  their  money  without  coer- 
cion, and  from  time  to  time;  that  they  alone  were 
the  judges,  alike  of  the  public  exigencies  and  the 
ability  of  the  people ;  that  they  contended,  not 
merely  for  the  mode  of  raising  their  money,  but  for 
the  freedom  of  granting  it ;  that  the  resolve  to  for- 
bear levying  pecuniary  taxes  still  left  unrepealed  the 
acts  restraining  trade,  altering  the  form  of  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  changing  the  government  of 
Quebec,  enlarging  the  jurisdiction  of  courts  of  ad- 
miralty, taking  away  the  trial  by  jury,  and  keeping 
up  standing  armies ;  that  the  invasion  of  the  colo- 
nies with  large  armaments  by  sea  and  land  was  a 
style  of  asking  gifts  not  reconcilable  to  freedom; 
that  the  resolution  did  not  propose  to  the  colonies 
to  lay  open  a  free  trade  with  all  the  world;  that 
as  it  involved  the  interest  of  all  the  other  colonies, 
they  were  bound  in  honor  to  share  one  fate  with 
them ;  that  the  bill  of  Lord  Chatham  on  fhe  one 
part,  and  the  terms  of  congress  on  the  other,  would 
have  formed  a  basis  for  negotiation  and  a  recon- 
ciliation ;  that  leaving  the  final  determination  of  the 
question  to  the  general  congress,  they  will  weary 
the  king  with  no  more  petitions,  the  British  nation 
with  no  more  appeals."  "  What  then,"  they  ask,  "  re- 
mains to  be  done  ? "  and  they  answer :  "  That  we  com- 


388  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


CHAP,  mit  our  injuries  to  the   justice  of  the  evenhanded 

XXXVII  f  ITT 

•^^  Being  who  doth  no  wrong." 

June.  "  In  my  life>"  sa^  Shelburne,  as  he  read  Jeffer- 
son's report,  "  I  was  never  more  pleased  with  a  state 
paper,  than  with  the  assembly  of  Virginia's  discus- 
sion of  Lord  North's  proposition.  It  is  masterly. 
But  what  I  fear  is,  that  the  evil  is  irretrievable." 
At  Versailles,  Vergennes  was  equally  attracted  by 
the  wisdom  and  dignity  of  the  document;  he  par- 
ticularly noticed  the  insinuation,  that  a  compromise 
might  be  effected  on  the  basis  of  the  modification  of 
the  navigation  acts ;  and  saw  so  many  ways  opened 
of  settling  every  difficulty,  that  it  was  long  before  he 
could  persuade  himself,  that  the  infatuation  of  the 
British  ministry  was  so  blind  as  to  neglect  them  all. 
From  Williamsburg,  Jefferson  repaired  to  Philadel- 
phia ;  but  before  he  arrived  there,  decisive  communi- 
cations had  been  received  from  Massachusetts. 

That  colony  still  languished  in  anarchy,  from  which 
they  were  ready  to  relieve  themselves,  if  they  could 
but  wring  the  consent  of  the  continental  congress. 
"  We  hope,"  wrote  they,  in  a  letter  which  was  read 
to  that  body  on  the  second  of  June,  "  you  will  favor 
us  with  your  most  explicit  advice  respecting  the 
taking  *up  and  exercising  the  powers  of  civil  govern- 
ment, which  we  think  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
salvation  of  our  country."  The  regulation  of  the 
'  army  was  a  subject  of  equal  necessity.  Uncounted 
and  ungoverned,  it  was  already  in  danger  of  vanish- 
ing like  dew,  or  being  dissolved  by  discontents.  The 
incompetency  of  Ward  for  his  station  was  observed 
by  Joseph  Warren,  now  president  of  the  congress. 
by  James  Warren  of  Plymouth,  by  Gerry  and  others ; 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER  IN    CHIEF.  389 


every  hour  made  it  more  imperative,  that  lie  should  CHAP. 

**  XXXVII 

be  superseded ;  and  yet  his  private  virtues  and  the  ^ — 
fear  of  exciting  dissensions  in  the  province,  required  june/ 
the  measure  to  be  introduced  with  delicacy  and  cir- 
cumspection. The  war  was*  to  become  a  continental 
war;  the  New  England  army  a  continental  army; 
and  that  change  in  its  relations  offered  the  oppor- 
tunity of  designating  a  new  commander  in  chief.  To 
this  end,  the  congress  of  Massachusetts  formally  in- 
vited the  general  congress  "  to  assume  the  regulation 
and  direction  of  the  army,  then  collecting  from 
different  colonies  for  the  defence  of  the  rights  of 
America."  At  the  same  time  Samuel  Adams  received 
a  private  letter  from  Joseph  Warren,  interpreting  the 
words  as  a  request  that  the  continent  should  "take 
the  command  of  the  army  by  appointing  a  generalissi- 
mo." The  generalissimo  whom  Joseph  Warren, 
Warren  of  Plymouth,  Gerry  and  others  desired,  was 
Washington.  The  bearer  of  the  letter  who  had  been 
commissioned  to  explain  more  fully  the  wishes  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, was  then  called  in.  His  communication 
had  hardly  been  finished,  when  an  express  arrived 
with  further  news  from  the  camp ;  that  Howe,  and 
Clinton,  and  Burgoyne,  had  landed  in  Boston ;  that 
British  reinforcements  were  arriving ;  that  other  parts 
of  the  continent  were  threatened  with  war.  A.  letter 
was  also  received  and  read,  from  the  congress  of  New 
Hampshire,  remotely  intimating  that  "  the  voice  of 
God  and  nature  "  was  summoning  the  colonies  to  in- 
dependence. 

It  was  evident  that  congress  would  hesitate  to 
adopt  an  army  of  New  England  men  under  a  Mas- 
sachusetts commander  in  chief.  Virginia  was  the 

VOL.  vii.  33* 


390  AMEKICAN   INDEPENDENCE. 


CHAP,  largest  and  oldest  colony,  and  one  of  her  sons  was 

XXXVII 

— —  acknowledged  to  surpass  all  his  countrymen  in  mili- 
June.  tary  capacity  and  skill.  The  choice  of  Washington 
as  the  general,  would  at  once  be  a  concession  to 
prejudice  and  in  itself  the  wisest  selection.  On  the 
earliest  occasion  John  Adams  explained  the  compo- 
sition and  character  of  the  New  England  army ; 
its  merits  and  its  wants ;  the  necessity  of  its  being 
adopted  by  the  continent,  and  the  consequent  pro- 
priety that  congress  should  name  its  general.  Then 
speaking  for  *his  constituents,  he  pointed  out  Wash- 
ington as  the  man,  above  all  others,  fitted  for 
that  station,  and  best  able  to  promote  union.  Sam- 
uel Adams  seconded  his  colleague.  The  delegates 
from  the  Ancient  Dominion,  especially  Pendleton, 
Washington's  personal  friend,  disclaimed  any  wish 
that  the  officer  whom  Massachusetts  had  advanced, 
should  be  superseded  by  a  Virginian.  Washington 
himself  had  never  aspired  to  the  honor ;  though  for 
some  time  he  had  been  "  apprehensive  that  he  could 
not  avoid  the  appointment." 

The  balloting  for  continental  officers  was  de- 
layed, that  the  members  from  New  York  might  con- 
sult their  provincial  congress  on  the  nominations  from 
that  colony. 

With  an  empire  to  found  and  to  defend,  congress 
had  not,  as  yet,  had  the  disposal  of  one  penny  of 
money.  The  army  which  beleaguered  Boston  had 
sent  for  gunpowder  to  every  colony  in  New  England, 
to  individual  counties  and  towns,  to  New  York  and 
still  further  south;  but  none  was  to  be  procured. 
In  the  urgency  of  extreme  distress,  congress  under- 
took to  borrow  six  thousand  pounds,  a  little  more 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER    IN    CHIEF.  391 


XXXVII 


than   twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  "for  the  use  of  CHAP. 

A  •  T  t 

America,     to    be   applied   to   the  purchase  of  gun- 
powder  for  what  was  now  for  the  first  time  called 

THE    CONTINENTAL    AEMY. 

In  the  arrangement  of  its  committees  and  the 
distribution  of  business,  it  still  sought  to  maintain  a 
position,  adverse  alike  to  a  surrender  of  liberty  and 
to  a  declaration  of  independence  ;  its  policy  was  an 
armed  defence,  while  waiting  for  a  further  answer 
from  the  king.  On  Wednesday  the  seventh  of  June, 
one  of  its  resolutions  spoke  of  "  the  Twelve  United 
Colonies,"  Georgia  being  not  yet  included  ;  and  the 
name  implied  an  independent  nation  ;  but  on  the 
eighth,  it  tardily  recommended  to  Massachusetts  not  to 
institute  a  new  government,  but  to  intrust  the  execu- 
tive power  to  the  elective  council,  "  until  a  governor 
of  the  king's  appointment  would  consent  to  govern 
the  colony  according  to  its  charter."  For  a  province 
in  a  state  of  insurrection  and  war,  a  worse  system 
could  hardly  have  been  devised.  It  had  no  unity,  no 
power  of  vigorous  action  ;  it  was  recommended  be- 
cause it  offered  the  fewest  obstacles  to  an  early  re- 
newal of  allegiance  to  the  British  crown. 

The  twelfth  of  June  is  memorable  for  the  con- 
trast between  the  manifest  dispositions  of  America 
and  of  the  British  representatives  at  Boston.  On 
that  day,  Gage,  under  pretence  of  proclaiming  a  gen- 
eral pardon  to  the  infatuated  multitude,  proscribed 
by  name  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock,  reserv- 
ing them  for  condign  punishment,  as  rebels  and 
traitors,  in  terms  which  included  as  their  abettors 
not  only  all  who  should  remain  in  arms  about  Bos- 


392  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ton,  but  every  member  of  the  provincial  government 
v — • — '  and  of  the  continental  congress.  In  the  same  breath 
ljune  ne  established  martial  law  throughout  Massachusetts, 
12-  while  vessels  cruised  off  Sandy  Hook  to  turn  to  Bos- 
ton the  transports  which  were  bound  with  four  regi- 
ments to  New  York.  He  also  called  upon  the  British 
secretary  of  state  to  concentrate  at  Boston  fifteen 
thousand  men,  of  whom  a  part  might  be  hunters, 
Canadians,  and  Indians ;  to  send  ten  thousand  more  to 
New  York ;  and  seven  thousand  more,  composed  of 
regular  troops  with  a  large  corps  of  Canadians  and 
Indians,  to  act  on  the  side  of  Lake  Champlain.  "  We 
need  not  be  tender  of  calling  upon  the  savages,"  were 
his  words  to  Dartmouth ;  some  of  the  Indians,  domi- 
ciled in  Massachusetts,  having  strolled  to  the  Amer- 
ican camp  to  gratify  curiosity  or  extort  presents,  he 
pretended  to  excuse  the  proposal  which  he  had  long 
meditated,  by  falsely  asserting  that  the  Americans 
"  had  brought  down  as  many  Indians  as  they  could 
collect." 

On  that  same  day  the  congress  of  New  York, 
which  had  already  taken  every  possible  step  to  in- 
duce the  Indians  not  to  engage  in  the  quarrel,  had 
even  offered  protection  to  Guy  Johnson,  the  superin- 
tendent, if  he  would  but  leave  the  Six  Nations  to 
their  neutrality,  and  had  prohibited  the  invasion  of 
Canada,  addressed  to  the  merchants  of  that  province 
the  assurance,  "  that  the  confederated  colonies  aimed 
not  at  independence,"  but  only  at  freedom  from  taxa- 
ation  by  authority  of  parliament.  On  that  same 
twelfth  of  June,  the  general  congress  made  its  first 
appeal  to  the  people  of  the  twelve  united  colonies 
by  an  injunction  to  them  to  keep  a  fast  on  one  and 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER   IN    CHIEF.  393 


the  same   day,  when  they  were  to  recognise  "  king  CHAP. 
George  the   Third  as   their   rightful  sovereign,  and  ^ ^ ' 
to   look   up   to   the   supreme   and   universal   super-  juue' 
intending  Providence  of  the  great  Governor  of  the 
world,  for  a  gracious  interposition  of  heaven  for  the 
restoration  of  the  invaded  rights  of  America,  and  a 
reconciliation  with  the  parent  state."     Every  village, 
every  family,  whether  on  the  seaside  or  in  the  forest, 
was  thus  summoned  to  give  the  most  solemn  attesta- 
tion of  their  desire  to  end  civil  discord,  and  "  regard 
the  things  that  belong  to  peace." 

Measures  were  next  taken  for  organizing  and 
paying  an  American  continental  army,  to  be  enlisted 
only  till  the  end  of  the  year,  before  which  time  a 
favorable  answer  from  the  king  was  hoped  for. 
Washington,  Schuyler,  and  others  were  deputed  to 
prepare  the  necessary  rules  and  regulations.  It  was 
also  resolved  to  enlist  ten  companies  of  expert  rifle- 
men, of  whom  six  were  to  be  formed  in  Pennsylvania, 
two  in  Maryland,  and  two  in  Virginia. 

Then  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  June,  it  was  voted  June 
to  appoint  a  general.  Johnson,  of  Maryland,  nomi- 
nated George  Washington ;  and  as  he  had  been 
brought  forward  "  at  the  particular  request  of  the 
people  in  New  England,"  he  was  elected  by  ballot 
unanimously. 

Washington  was  then  forty-three  years  of  age. 
In  stature  he  a  little  exceeded  six  feet ;  his  limbs  were 
sinewy  and  well  proportioned ;  his  chest  broad ;  his  ' 
figure  stately,  blending  dignity  of  presence  with  ease. 
His  robust  constitution  had  been  tried  and  invig- 
orated by  his  early  life  in  the  wilderness,  his  habit  of 
occupation  out  of  doors,  and  his  rigid  temperance ;  so 


394  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

• 

CHAP,  that  few  equalled  him  in  strength  of  arm  or  power  of 

XXXVII 

— ' —  endurance.  His  complexion  was  florid  ;  his  hair  dark 
ifi.  brown ;  his  head  in  its  shape  perfectly  round.  His 
broad  nostrils  seemed  formed  to  give  expression  and 
escape  to  scornful  anger.  His  dark  blue  eyes,  which 
were  deeply  set,  had  an  expression  of  resignation,  and 
an  earnestness  that  was  almost  sadness. 

At  eleven  years  old,  left  an  orphan  to  the  care  of 
an  excellent  but  unlettered  mother,  he  grew  up  with- 
out learning.  Of  arithmetic  and  geometry  he  ac- 
quired just  knowledge  enough  to  be  able  to  practise 
measuring  land ;  but  all  his  instruction  at  school  taught 
him  not  so  much  as  the  orthography  or  rules  of  gram- 
mar of  his  own  tongue.  His  culture  was  altogether 
his  own  work,  and  he  was  in  the  strictest  sense  a 
self-made  man ;  yet  from  his  early  life  he  never  seemed 
uneducated.  At  sixteen  he  went  into  the  wilderness 
as  a  surveyor,  and  for  three  years  continued  the  pur- 
suit, where  the  forests  trained  him,  in  meditative  soli- 
tude, to  freedom  and  largeness  of  mind ;  and  nature 
revealed  to  him  her  obedience  to  serene  and  silent 
laws.  In  his  intervals  from  toil,  he  seemed  always  to 
be  attracted  to  the  best  men,  and  to  be  cherished  by 
them.  Fairfax,  his  employer,  an  Oxford  scholar, 
already  aged,  became  his  fast  friend.  He  read  little, 
but  with  close  attention.  Whatever  he  took  in 
hand,  he  applied  himself  to  with  care ;  and  his  pa- 
pers, which  have  been  preserved,  show  how  he 
almost  imperceptibly  gained  the  power  of  writing 
correctly;  always  expressing  himself  with  clearness 
and  directness,  often  with  felicity  of  language  and 
grace. 

When  the   frontiers   on   the   west    became   dis- 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER    IN    CHIEF.  395 

fcurbed,  lie  at  nineteen  was   commissioned  an  adiu-  CHAP. 

XXXVIl 

tant-general  with  the  rank  of  major.  At  twenty-one 
he  went  as  the  envoy  of  Virginia  to  the  council  of 
Indian  chiefs  on  the  Ohio  and  to  the  French  officers  15- 
near  Lake  Erie.  Fame  awaited  upon  him  from  his 
youth ;  and  no  one  of  his  colony  was  so  much  spoken 
of.  He  conducted  the  first  military  expedition 
from  Virginia,  that  crossed  the  Alleghanies.  Brad- 
dock  selected  him  as  an  aid,  and  he  was  the  only 
man  who  came  out  of  the  disastrous  defeat  near  the 
Monongahela,  with  increased  reputation,  which  ex- 
tended to  England.  The  next  year,  when  he  was  but 
four  and  twenty,  "  the  great  esteem  "  in  which  he  was 
held  in  Virginia,  and  his  "  real  merit,"  led  the  lieu- 
tenant governor  of  Maryland  to  request  that  he 
might  be  "  commissionated  and  appointed  second  in 
command"  of  the  army  designed  to  march  to  the 
Ohio  ;  and  Shirley,  the  commander  in  chief,  heard  the 
proposal  "  with  great  satisfaction  and  pleasure,"  for 
"  he  knew  no  provincial  officer  upon  the  continent  to 
whom  he  would  so  readily  give  it  as  to  Washington." 
In  1758  he  acted  under  Forbes  as  a  brigadier,  and  but 
for  him  that  general  would  never  have  been  able  to 
cross  the  mountains. 

Courage  was  so  natural  to  him,  that  it  was  hardly 
spoken  of  to  his  praise  ;  no  one  ever  at  any  moment 
of  his  life  discovered  in  him  the  least  shrinking  in 
danger ;  and  he  had  a  hardihood  of  daring  which 
escaped  notice,  because  it  was  so  enveloped  by  supe- 
rior calmness  and  wisdom. 

He  was  as  cheerful  as  he  was  spirited,  frank  and 
communicative  in  the  society  of  friends,  fond  of  the 
fox-chase  and  the  dance,  often  sportive  in  his  let- 


396  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ters,  and  liked  a  hearty  laugh.     This  joyousness  of 
~^^  disposition   remained  to  the   last,  though  the   vast- 
June    ness  °^  kis  responsibilities  was    soon  to  take  from 
him  the  right  of  displaying  the  impulsive  qualities  of 
his  nature,  and  the  weight  which   he  was  to  bear 
up,  was  to  overlay  and  repress  his  gaiety  and  open- 
ness. 

His  hand  was  liberal ;  giving  quietly  and  without 
observation,  as  though  he  was  ashamed  of  nothing 
but  being  discovered  in  doing  good.  He  was  kindly 
and  compassionate,  and  of  lively  sensibility  to  the 
sorrows  of  others;  so  that  if  his  country  had  only 
needed  a  victim  for  its  relief,  he  would  have  willingly 
offered  himself  as  a  sacrifice.  But  while  he  was  prod- 
igal of  himself,  he  was  considerate  for  others ;  ever 
parsimonious  of  the  blood  of  his  countrymen. 

He  was  prudent  in  the  management  of  his  private 
affairs,  purchased  rich  lands  from  the  Mohawk  Valley 
to  the  flats  of  the  Kanawha,  and  improved  his  for- 
tune by  the  correctness  of  his  judgment ;  but  as  a 
public  man  he  knew  no  other  aim  than  the  good  of 
his  country,  and  in  the  hour  of  his  country's  poverty, 
he  refused  personal  emolument  for  his  service. 

His  faculties  were  so  well  balanced  and  combined, 
that  his  constitution,  free  from  excess,  was  tempered 
evenly  with  all  the  elements  of  activity,  and  his 
mind  resembled  a  well  ordered  commonwealth ;  his 
passions,  which  had  the  intensest  vigor,  owned  alle- 
giance to  reason ;  and,  with  all  the  fiery  quickness  of 
his  spirit,  his  impetuous  and  massive  will  was  held  in 
check  by  consummate  judgment.  He  had  in  his  com 
position  a  calm,  which  gave  him  in  moments  of  highest 
excitement  the  power  of  self-control,  and  enabled  him 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER    IN    CHIEF.  397 

to  excel  in  patience,  even  when  he  had  most  cause  for  CHAP. 

XXXVII 

disgust.  Washington  was  offered  a  command  when  ^-^ — 
there  was  little  to  bring  out  the  unorganized  resources 
of  the  continent  but  his  own  influence,  and  authority 
was  connected  with  the  people  by  the  most  frail,  most 
attenuated,  scarcely  discernible  threads ;  yet  vehement 
as  was  his  nature,  impassioned  as  was  his  courage,  he 
so  restrained  his  ardor,  that  he  never  failed  contin- 
uously to  exert  the  attracting  power  of  that  influ- 
ence, and  never  exerted  it  so  sharply  as  to  break  its 
force. 

In  secrecy  he  was  unsurpassed ;  but  his  secrecy 
had  the  character  of  prudent  reserve,  not  of  cunning 
or  concealment. 

His  understanding  was  lucid,  and  his  judgment  ac- 
curate ;  so  that  his  conduct  never  betrayed  hurry  or 
confusion.  No  detail  was  too  minute  for  his  personal 
inquiry  and  continued  supervision ;  and  at  the  same 
time  he  comprehended  events  in  their  widest  aspects 
and  relations.  He  never  seemed  above  the  object  that 
engaged  his  attention,  and  he  was  always  equal,  with- 
out an  effort,  to  the  solution  of  the  highest  questions, 
even  when  there  existed  no  precedents  to  guide  his 
decision. 

In  this  way  he  never  drew  to  himself  admiration 
for  the  possession  of  any  one  quality  in  excess,  never 
made  in  council  any  one  suggestion  that  was  sublime 
but  impracticable,  never  in  action  took  to  himself  the 
praise  or  the  blame  of  undertakings  astonishing  in 
conception,  but  beyond  his  means  of  execution.  It 
was  the  most  wonderful  accomplishment  of  this  man 
that  placed  upon  the  largest  theatre  of  events,  at  the 
head  of  the  greatest  revolution  in  human  affairs,  he 

VOL.  vii.       34 


398  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE 

CHAP,  never  failed  to  observe  all  that  was  possible,  and  at 
^ —  the  same  time  to  bound  his  aspirations  by  that  which 

1775.  .,-,  J 

June.   was  possible. 

A  slight  tinge  in  his  character,  perceptible  only 
to  the  close  observer,  revealed  the  region  from  which 
he  sprung,  and  he  might  be  described  as  the  best  spe- 
cimen of  manhood  as  developed  in  the  south ;  but  his 
qualities  were  so  faultlessly  proportioned,  that  his 
whole  country  rather  claimed  him  as  its  choicest 
representative,  the  most  complete  expression  of  all  its 
attainments  and  aspirations.  He  studied  his  country 
and  conformed  to  it.  His  countrymen  felt  that  he  was 
the  best  type  of  America,  and  rejoiced  in  it,  and  were 
proud  of  it.  They  lived  in  his  life,  and  made  his  suc- 
cess and  his  praise  their  own. 

Profoundly  impressed  with  confidence  in  God's 
Providence,  and  exemplary  in  his  respect  for  the 
forms  of  public  worship,  no  philosopher  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  was  more  firm  in  the  support  of  free- 
dom of  religious  opinion  ;  none  more  tolerant,  or 
more  remote  from  bigotry ;  but  belief  in  God  and 
trust  in  His  overruling  power,  formed  the  essence  of 
his  character.  Divine  wisdom  not  only  illumines  the 
spirit,  it  inspires  the  will.  Washington  was  a  man 
of  action,  and  not  of  theory  or  words ;  his  creed  ap- 
pears in  his  life,  not  in  his  professions,  which  burst 
from  him  very  rarely,  and  only  at  those  great  mo- 
ments of  crisis  in  the  fortunes  of  his  country,  when 
earth  and  heaven  seemed  actually  to  meet,  and  his 
emotions  became  too  intense  for  suppression  ;  but  his 
whole  being  was  one  continued  act  of  faith  in  the 
eternal,  intelligent,  moral  order  of  the  universe.  In- 
tegrity was  so  completely  the  law  of  his  nature,  that 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER    IN    CHIEF.  399 

a  planet  would  sooner  have  shot  from  its  sphere,  than  CHAP. 
he  have  departed  from  his  uprightness,  which  was  so 
constant,  that  it  often  seemed  to  be  almost  impersonal. 

They  say  of  Giotto,  that  he  introduced  goodness 
into  the  art  of  painting  ;  Washington  carried  it  with 
him  to  the  camp  and  the  cabinet,  and  established  a 
new  criterion  of  human  greatness.  The  purity  of  his 
will  confirmed  his  fortitude ;  and  as  he  never  faltered 
in  his  faith  in  virtue,  he  stood  fast  by  that  which 
he  knew  to  be  just ;  free  from  illusions ;  never  de- 
jected by  the  apprehension  of  the  difficulties  and 
perils  that  went  before  him,  and  drawing  the  promise 
of  success  from  the  justice  of  his  cause.  Hence  he 
was  persevering,  leaving  nothing  unfinished ;  free 
from  all  taint  of  obstinacy  in  his  firmness ;  seeking, 
and  gladly  receiving  advice,  but  immovable  in  his 
devoted  ness  to  right. 

Of  a  "  retiring  modesty  and  habitual  reserve,"  his 
ambition  was  no  more  than  the  consciousness  of  his 
power,  and  was  subordinate  to  his  sense  of  duty ;  he 
took  the  foremost  place,  for  he  knew  from  inborn 
magnanimity,  that  it  belonged  to  him,  and  he  dared 
not  withhold  the  service  required  of  him ;  so  that, 
with  all  his  humility,  he  was  by  necessity  the  first, 
though  never  for  himself  or  for  private  ends.  He 
loved  fame,  the  approval  of  coming  generations,  the 
good  opinion  of  his  fellow-men  of  his  own  time,  and 
he  desired  to  make  his  conduct  coincide  with  their 
wishes  ;  but  not  fear  of  censure,  not  the  prospect  of 
applause,  could  tempt  him  to  swerve  from  rectitude, 
and  the  praise  which  he  coveted,  was  the  sympathy 
of  that  moral  sentiment  which  exists  in  every  human 
breast,  and  goes  forth  only  to  the  welcome  of  virtue. 


400  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP.  There  have  been  soldiers  who  have  achieved 
— *—  mightier  victories  in  the  field,  and  made  conquests 
'  more  nearly  corresponding  to  the  boundlessness  of 
selfish  ambition ;  statesmen  who  have  been  connected 
with  more  startling  upheavals  of  society;  but  it  is 
the  greatness  of  Washington,  that  in  public  trusts  he 
used  power  solely  for  the  public  good ;  that  he  was 
the  life,  and  moderator,  and  stay  of  the  most  momen- 
tous revolution  in  human  affairs,  its  moving  impulse 
and  its  restraining  power.  Combining  the  centripe- 
tal and  the  centrifugal  forces  in  their  utmost  strength 
and  in  perfect  relations,  with  creative  grandeur  of 
instinct  he  held  ruin  in  check,  and  renewed  and  per- 
fected the  institutions  of  his  country.  Finding  the 
colonies  disconnected  and  dependent,  he  left  them 
such  a  united  and  well  ordered  commonwealth  as  no 
visionary  had  believed  to  be  possible.  So  that  it 
has  been  truly  said,  "he  was  as  fortunate  as  great 
and  good." 

This  also  is  the  praise  of  Washington ;  that  never 
in  the  tide  of  time  has  any  man  lived  who  had  in  so 
great  a  degree  the  almost  divine  faculty  to  command 
the  confidence  of  his  fellow-men  and  rule  the  willing. 
Wherever  he  became  known,  in  his  family,  his  neigh- 
borhood, his  county,  his  native  state,  the  continent, 
the  camp,  civil  life,  the  United  States,  among  the 
common  people,  in  foreign  courts,  throughout  the 
civilized  world  of  the  human  race,  and  even  among 
the  savages,  he,  beyond  all  other  men,  had  the  confi- 
dence of  his  kind. 

Washington  saw  at  a  glance  the  difficulties  of  the 
position  to  which  he  had  been  chosen.  He  was  ap- 
pointed by  a  government  which,  in  its  form,  was  one 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER    IN    CHIEF.  401 

of  the  worst  of  all  possible  governments  in  time  of  xxxvii 
peace,  and  was  sure  to  reveal  its  defects  still  more  ^  ' 
plainly  in  time  of  war.  It  was  inchoate  and  with-  June.' 
out  an  executive  head ;  the  several  branches  of  ad- 
ministration, if  to  be  conducted  at  all,  were  to  be 
conducted  by  separate,  ever  changing,  and  irrespon- 
sible committees ;  and  all  questions  of  legislation  and 
of  action  ultimately  decided  by  the  one  ill  organized 
body  of  men,  who,  in  respect  of  granted  powers,  were 
too  feeble  even  to  originate  advice.  They  were 
not  the  representatives  of  a  union ;  they  alone  con- 
stituted the  union  of  which,  as  yet,  there  was  no 
other  bond.  One  whole  department  of  government^ 
the  judicial,  was  entirely  wanting.  So  was,  in  truth, 
the  executive.  The  congress  had  no  ability  whatever 
to  enforce  a  decree  of  their  own ;  they  had  no  reve- 
nue, and  no  authority  to  collect  a  revenue ;  they  had 
none  of  the  materials  of  war;  they  did  not  own  a 
cannon,  nor  a  pound  of  powder,  nor  a  tent,  nor  a 
musket;  they  had  no  regularly  enlisted  army,  and 
had  even  a  jealousy  of  forming  an  army,  and  de- 
pended on  the  zeal  of  volunteers,  or  of  men  to  be 
enlisted  for  less  than  seven  months.  There  were  no 
experienced  officers,  and  no  methods  projected  for 
obtaining  them.  Washington  saw  it  all.  He  was  in 
the  enjoyment  of  fame  ;  he  wished  not  to  forfeit  the 
esteem  of  his  fellow-men ;  and  his  eye  glistened  with 
a  tear,  as  he  said  in  confidence  to  Patrick  Henry  on 
occasion  of  his  appointment :  "  This  day  will  be  the 
commencement  of  the  decline  of  my  reputation." 

But  this  consideration  did  not  make  him  waver. 
On  the  sixteenth  of  June,  he  appeared  in  his  place 
in  congress,  and  after,  refusing  all  pay  beyond  his  ex- 
VOL.  vii.  34* 


402  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  penses.  he  spoke  with,  unfeigned  modesty :  "  As  the 

XXXVII 

— • — •  congress  desire  it,  I  will  enter  upon  the  momentous 
lJune.  duty,  and  exert  every -power  I  possess  in  their  ser- 
vice, and  for  the  support  of  the  glorious  cause.  But 
I  beg  it  may  be  remembered  by  every  gentleman  in 
the  room,  that  I  this  day  declare,  with  the  utmost 
sincerity,  I  do  not  think  myself  equal  to  the  command 
I  am  honored  with." 

The  next  day,  the  delegates  of  all  the  colonies 
resolved  unanimously  in  congress  "  to  maintain  and 
assist  him,  and  adhere  to  him,  the  said  George  Wash- 
ington, Esquire,  with  their  lives  and  fortunes  in  the 


same  cause." 


By  his  commission,  he  was  invested  with  the  com- 
mand over  all  forces  raised  or  to  be  raised  by  the 
United  Colonies,  and  with  full  power  and  authority 
to  act  as  he  should  think  for  the  good  and  welfare 
of  the  service ;  and  he  was  instructed  to  take  "special 
care  that  the  liberties  of  America  receive  no  detri- 
ment." 

Washington  knew  that  he  must  depend  for  suc- 
cess on  a  steady  continuance  of  purpose  in  an  imper- 
fectly united  continent,  and  on  his  personal  influence 
over  separate  and  half-formed  governments,  with  most 
of  which  he  was  wholly  unacquainted ;  he  foresaw  a 
long  and  arduous  struggle ;  but  a  secret  consciousness 
of  his  power  bade  him  not  to  fear ;  and  whatever 
might  be  the  backwardness  of  others,  he  never  admit- 
ted for  a  moment  the  thought  of  sheathing  his  sword 
or  resigning  his  command,  till  his  work  of  vindicating 
American  liberty  should  be  done.  To  his  wife  he  un- 
bosomed his  inmost  mind :  "  I  hope  my  undertaking 
this  service  is  designed  to  answer  some  good  pur- 


WASHINGTON    AS    COMMANDER    IN    CHIEF.  403 

pose.     I  rely  confidently  on  that  Providence,  which  CHAP. 
has  heretofore  preserved  and  t)een  bountiful  to  me."     *-w 

177^ 

His  acceptance  at  once  changed  the  aspect  of  June. 
affairs.  John  Adams,  looking  with  complacency 
upon  "the  modest  and  virtuous,  the  amiable,  gen- 
erous, and  brave  general,"  as  the  choice  of  Massa- 
chusetts, said :  "  This  appointment  will  have  a  great 
effect  in  cementing  the  union  of  these  colonies." 
"  The  general  is  one  of  the  most  important  characters 
of  the  world;  upon  him  depend  the  liberties  of 
America."  All  hearts  turned  with  affection  towards 
Washington.  This  is  he  who  was  raised  up  to  be  not 
the  head  of  a  party,  but  the  father  of  his  country. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVIII. 


PRESCOTT    OCCUPIES    BREED'S    HILL, 

JUNE  16-17,  1775. 
CHAP.  THE  army  round  Boston,  of  which  Washington  in 

XXXVIII.  J 

"•^Y— '  person  was  soon  to  take  command,  was  "  a  mixed 
June,  multitude,"  as  yet,  "  under  very  little  discipline, 
order,  or  government."  The  province  of  Massachu- 
setts had  no  executive  head,  and  no  unity  even  in  the 
military  department.  Ward  was  enjoined  to  obey  the 
decisions  of  the  committee  of  safety,  whose  directions 
were  intercepted  on  their  way  to  him  by  the  council 
of  war.  Thus  want  of  confidence  multiplied  the 
boards  to  which  measures  were  referred,  till  affairs 
wore  an  aspect  of  chaos.  The  real  strength  of  the 
forces  was  far  inferior  to  the  returns.  There  were  the 
materials  for  a  good  army  in  the  private  men,  of 
whom  great  numbers  were  able  bodied,  active,  and 
unquestionably  brave,  and  there  were  also  officers 
worthy  of  leading  such  men.  But  by  a  vicious  sys- 
tem of  recruiting,  commissions  were  given  to  those 
who  raised  companies  or  regiments ;  and  many  had 
crowded  themselves  into  place  from  love  of  rank  or 


PRESCOTT    OCCUPIES    BREEDS    HILL.  405 


pay,  without  experience,  spirit,  or  military  capacity. 
This  also  led  to  the  engagement  of  unsuitable  men  ;  ^^ 
and  in  some  cases  to  false  muster-rolls.  In  nearly  June. 
every  company,  many  were  absent  with  or  without 
leave.  No  efficient  discipline  or  proper  subordination 
was  established.  For  tents,  canvas  and  sails,  col- 
lected from  the  seaport  towns,  had  furnished  a  small 
but  insufficient  supply,  and  troops  were  quartered  in 
the  colleges  and  private  houses.  There  was  a  great 
want  of  money  and  of  clothing  ;  of  engineers,  but 
above  all,  of  ammunition.  The  scanty  store  of  pow- 
der was  reserved  almost  exclusively  for  the  small 
arms,  and  used  with  great  frugality.  "  Confusion  and 
disorder  reigned  in  every  department,  which  in  a 
little  time  must  have  ended  either  in  the  separation 
of  the  army,  or  fatal  contests  with  one  another." 

Of  the  soldiers  from  the  other  colonies,  the  New 
Hampshire  regiments  only  had  as  yet  been  placed 
under  the  command  of  Ward.  The  arrival  of  Greene 
quieted  a  rising  spirit  of  discontent,  which  had  threat- 
ened to  break  up  the  detachment  from  Rhode  Island  ; 
but  some  of  their  captains  and  many  subalterns  con- 
tinued to  neglect  their  duty,  from  fear  of  offending 
the  soldiers,  from  indolence,  or  from  obstinacy.  Of 
the  men  of  Connecticut,  a  part  were  with  Spencer 
at  Koxbury;  several  hundred  at  Cambridge  with  Put- 
nam, the  second  brigadier  ;  who  was  distinguished  for 
bold  advice,  alertness,  and  popular  favor  ;  and  was 
seen  constantly  on  horseback  or  on  foot,  working  with 
his  men  or  encouraging  them. 

The  age  and  infirmities  of  Ward  combined  to  in- 
crease the  caution  which  the  state  of  the  camp  made 
imperative.  He  was  unwilling  to  hazard  defeat,  and 


406  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  inclined  to  await  the  solution  of  events  from  the  nego- 

XXXVIII.         t  .    c 

— • —  tiations  of  the  continental  congress.  It  was  sometimes 
lJune."  even  suggested  that  the  Americans  could  never  hold 
Cambridge,  and  that  they  had  better  go  back  and  for- 
tify on  the  heights  of  Brookline.  "We  must  hold 
Cambridge,"  was  Putnam's  constant  reply,  and  he  re- 
peatedly but  vainly  asked  leave  to  advance  the  lines 
to  Prospect  Hill.  Yet  the  army  never  doubted  its 
ability  to  avenge  the  public  wrongs ;  and  danger  and 
war  were  becoming  attractive. 

The  British  forces  gave  signs  of  shame  at  their 
confinement  and  inactivity.  "  Bloody  work "  was 
expected,  and  it  was  rumored  that  they  were  deter- 
mined, as  far  as  they  could,  to  lay  the  country  waste 
with  fire  and  sword.  The  secretary  of  state  fre- 
quently assured  the  French  minister  at  London,  that 
they  would  now  take  the  field,  and  that  the  Ameri- 
cans would  soon  tire  of  the  strife.  The  king  of  Eng- 
land, who  had  counted  the  days  necessary  for  the  voy- 
age of  the  transports,  was  "  trusting  soon  to  hear  that 
Gage  had  dispersed  the  rebels,  destroyed  their  works, 
opened  a  communication  with  the  country,"  and  im- 
prisoned the  leading  patriots  of  the  colony. 

The  peninsula  of  Boston,  at  that  time  connected 
with  the  main  land  by  a  very  low  and  narrow  isth- 
mus, had  at  its  south  a  promontory  then  known  as 
Dorchester  Neck,  with  three  hills,  commanding  the 
town.  At  the  north  lay  the  peninsula  of  Charles- 
town,  in  length  not  much  exceeding  a  mile ;  in  width, 
a  little  more  than  a  half  mile,  but  gradually  diminish- 
ing towards  the  causeway,  which  kept  asunder  the 
Mystic  and  the  Charles,  where  each  of  those  rivers 


PRESCOTT    OCCUPIES    BREED'S    HILL.  407 

meets  an  arm  of  the  sea.     Near  its  northeastern  ter-  CHAP. 

XXXVIH. 

mination  rose  the  round  smooth  acclivity  of  Bunker  sTr^r" 
Hill,  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  high,  commanding  both   June, 
peninsulas.     The  high  land  then  fell  away  by  a  grad- 
ual slope  for  about  seven  hundred  yards,  and  just 
north  by  east  of  the  town  of  Charlestown,  it  reappear- 
ed with  an  elevation  of  about  seventy-five  feet,  which 
bore  the  name  of  Breed's  Hill.     Whoever  should 
hold  the  heights   of  Dorchester    and    Charlestown, 
would  be  masters  of  Boston. 

About  the  middle  of  May,  a  joint  committee  from 
that  of  gafety  and  the  council  of  war,  after  a  careful 
examination,  recommended  that  several  eminences 
within  the  limits  of  the  town  of  Charlestown  should 
be  occupied,  and  that  a  strong  redoubt  should  be  raised 
on  Bunker  Hill.  A  breastwork  was  thrown  up  across 
the  road  near  Prospect  Hill;  and  Bunker  Hill  was  to 
have  been  fortified  as  soon  as  adequate  supplies  of  ar- 
tillery and  powder  should  be  obtained;  but  delay  would 
have  rendered  even  the  attempt  impossible.  Gage, 
with  the  three  major-generals,  was  determined  to  ex- 
tend his  lines  north  and  south,  over  Dorchester  and 
Charlestown ;  and  as  he  proposed  to  begin  with  Dor- 
chester, Howe  was  to  land  troops  on  the  point ;  Clin- 
ton in  the  centre ;  while  Burgoyne  was  to  cannonade 
from  Boston  Neck.  The  operations,  it  was  believed, 
would  be  very  easy ;  and  their  execution  was  fixed 
for  the  eighteenth  of  June. 

This  design  became  known  in  the  American  camp, 
and  such  was  the  restless  courage  of  the  better  part  of 
the  officers,  such  the  confidence  of  the  soldiers,  that  it 
seemed  to  justify  a  desire  to  anticipate  the  movement. 
Accordingly,  on  the  fifteenth  of  June,  the  Massachu- 
setts committee  of  safety  informed  the  council  of  war, 


408  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  that  in  their  opinion,  Dorchester  heights  should  be 
fortified ;  and  they  recommended  unanimously  to 
establish  a  post  on  Bunker  Hill.  Ward,  who  was 
bound  to  comply  with  the  instructions  of  his  supe- 
riors, proceeded  to  execute  the  advice. 

The  decision  was  so  sudden,  that  no  fit  prepara- 
tion could  be  made.  The  nearly  total  want  of  am- 
munition rendered  the  service  desperately  daring ;  in 
searching  for  an  officer  suited  to  such  an  enterprise, 
the  choice  fell  on  William  Prescott,  of  Pepperell, 
colonel  of  a  regiment  from  the  northwest  of  Middle- 
sex, who  himself  was  solicitous  to  assume  the  perilous 
June  duty ;  and  on  the  very  next  evening  after  the  vote  of 
16'  the  committee  of  safety,  a  night  and  day  only  in  ad- 
vance of  the  purpose  of  Gage,  a  brigade  of  one  thou- 
sand men  was  placed  under  his  command. 

Soon  after  sunset,  the  party  composed  of  three 
hundred  of  his  own  regiment,  detachments  from  those 
of  Frye  and  of  Bridge,  and  two  hundred  men  of  Con- 
necticut, under  the  gallant  Thomas  Knowlton,  of  Ash- 
ford,  were  ordered  to  parade  on  Cambridge  common. 
They  were  a  body  of  husbandmen,  not  in  uniform, 
bearing  for  the  most  part  no  other  arms  than  fowling 
pieces  which  had  no  bayonets,  and  carrying  in  horns 
and  pouches  their  stinted  supply  of  powder  and  bul- 
lets. Langdon,  the  president  of  Harvard  college,  who 
was  one  of  the  chaplains  to  the  army,  prayed  with  them 
fervently ;  then,  as  the  late  darkness  of  the  midsummer 
evening  closed  in,  they  marched  for  Charlestown  in 
the  face  of  the  proclamation,  issued  only  four  days 
before,  by  which  all  persons  taken  in  arms  against 
their  sovereign,  were  threatened  under  martial  law 
with  death  by  the  cord  as  rebels  and  traitors.  Pres- 


PRESCOTT    OCCUPIES    BREED*S    HILL.  409 

cott  and  his  party  were  the  first  to  give  the  menace 
a  defiance.     For  himself,  he  was  resolved  "  never  to 

U       x    1  V          11  1775' 

be  taken  alive.  •      June 

When  with  hushed  voices  and  silent  tread,  they 
and  the  wagons  laden  with  intrenching  tools  had 
passed  the  narrow  isthmus,  Prescott  called  around 
him  Richard  Gridley,  an  experienced  engineer,  and 
the  field  officers,  to  select  the  exact  spot  for  their  earth 
works.  The  committee  of  safety  had  proposed  Bun- 
ker Hill ;  but  Prescott  had  "  received  orders  to  march 
to  Breed's  Hill."  Heedless  of  personal  danger,  he 
obeyed  the  orders  as  he  understood  them ;  and  with 
the  ready  assent  of  his  self-devoted  companions,  who 
wer«  bent  on  straitening  the  English  to  the  utmost,  it 
was  upon  the  eminence  nearest  Boston,  and  best 
suited  to  annoy  the  town  and  the  shipping  in  the 
harbor,  that  under  the  light  of  the  stars  the  en- 
gineer drew  the  lines  of  a  redoubt  of  nearly  eight 
rods  square.  The  bells  of  Boston  had  struck  twelve  june 
before  the  first  sod  was  thrown  up.  Then  every  man 
of  the  thousand  seized  in  his  turn  the  pickaxe  and 
spade,  and  they  plied  their  tools  with  such  expe- 
dition, that  the  parapet  soon  assumed  form,  and 
height,  and  capacity  for  defence.  "  We  shall  keep 
our  ground,"  thus  Prescott  related  that  he  silently 
revolved  his  position,  "  if  some  screen,  however  slight, 
can  be  completed  before  discovery."  The  Lively 
lay  in  the  ferry,  between  Boston  and  Charlestown, 
and  a  little  to  the  eastward  were  moored  the  Fal- 
con, and  the  Somerset,  a  ship  of  the  line ;  the  vet- 
eran not  only  set  a  watch  to  patrol  the  shore,  but 
bending  his  ear  to  catch  every  sound,  twice  repaired  to 
the  margin  of  the  water,  where  he  heard  the  drowsy 
VOL.  vii.  35 


410  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  sentinels  from  the  decks  of  the  men  of  war  still  cry : 

XXXVIII.  » 

^^  "  All  is  well."  Putnam  also  during  the  night  came 
june  *  among  the  men  of  Connecticut  on  the  hill ;  but  he 
17<  assumed  no  command  over  the  detachment. 

The  few  hours  that  remained  of  darkness  hur- 
ried away,  but  not  till  the  line  of  circumvallation  was 
already  closed.  As  day  dawned,  the  seamen  were 
roused  to  action,  and  every  one  in  Boston  was  star- 
tled from  slumber  by  the  cannon  of  the  Lively 
playing  upon  the  redoubt.  Citizens  of  the  town, 
and  British  officers,  and  tory  refugees,  the  kindred 
of  the  insurgents,  crowded  to  gaze  with  wonder 
and  surprise  at  the  small  fortress  of  earth  freshly 
thrown  up,  and  "the  rebels,"  who  were  still  plainly 
seen  at  their  toil.  A  battery  of  heavy  guns  was  forth- 
with mounted  on  Copp's  Hill,  which  was  directly 
opposite,  at  a  distance  of  but  twelve  hundred  yards, 
and  an  incessant  shower  of  shot  and  bombs  was 
rained  upon  the  works ;  but  Prescott,  whom  Gridley 
had  forsaken,  calmly  considered  how  he  could  best 
continue  his  line  of  defence. 

At  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  the  north  was  a  slough, 
beyond  which  an  elevated  tongue  of  land,  having  few 
trees,  covered  chiefly  with  grass,  and  intersected  by 
fences,  stretched  away  to  the  Mystic.  Without  the 
aid  of  an  engineer,  Prescott  himself  extended  his  line 
from  the  east  side  of  the  redoubt  northerly  for  about 
twenty  rods  towards  the  bottom  of  the  hill ;  but  the 
men  were  prevented  from  completing  it  "  by  the  in- 
tolerable fire  of  the  enemy."  Still  the  cannonade 
from  the  battery  and  shipping  could  not  dislodge 
them,  though  it  was  a  severe  trial  to  raw  soldiers, 
unaccustomed  to  the  noise  of  artillery.  Early  in  the 


PRESCOTT   OCCUPIES    BREED'S    HILL.  411 

day,  a  private   was  killed  and  buried.     To  inspire  CHAP. 
confidence,  Prescott  mounted  the  parapet  and  walked  ^v^ 
leisurely   backwards   and   forwards,   examining   the   june' 
works  and  giving  directions  to  the  officers.     One  of      1/r- 
his  captains,  perceiving  his  motive,  imitated  his  ex- 
ample.    From  Boston,  Gage  with  his  telescope  de- 
scried the  commander  of  the  party.    "  Will  he  fight  ? " 
asked  the  general  of  Willard,  Prescott's  brother-in- 
law,  late  a  mandamus  councillor,  who  was  at  his  side. 
"  To  the  last  drop  of  his  blood,"  answered  Willard. 
As  the  British  generals   saw  that  every  hour  gave 
fresh  strength  to  the  intrenchments  of  the  Americans, 
by  nine  o'clock  they  deemed  it  necessary  to  alter  the 
plan  previously  agreed  upon,  and  to  make  the  attack 
immediately  on  the  side  that  could  be  soonest  reached. 
Had  they  landed  troops  at  the  isthmus  as  they  might 
have  done,  the  detachment  on  Breed's  Hill  would  have 
had  no  chances  of  escape  or  relief. 

The  day  was  exceedingly  hot,  one  of  the  hottest 
of  the  season.  After  their  fatigues  through  the 
night,  the  American  partisans  might  all  have  pleaded 
their  unfitness  for  action ;  some  left  the  post,  and 
the  field  officers,  Bridge  and  Brickett,  being  indis- 
posed, could  render  their  commander  but  little  ser- 
vice. Yet  Prescott  was  dismayed  neither  by  fatigue, 
nor  desertion.  "Let  us  never  consent  to  being  re- 
lieved," said  he  to  his  own  regiment,  and  to  all  who 
remained ;  "  these  are  the  works  of  our  hands,  to  us  be 
the  honor  of  defending  them."  He  consented  to  des- 
patch repeated  messengers  for  reinforcements  and 
provisions ;  but  at  the  hour  of  noon  no  assistance 
had  appeared.  His  men  had  toiled  all  the  night  long, 
had  broken  their  fast  only  with  what  they  had  brought 


412  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  in  their  knapsacks  the  evening  before,  had,  under  a 

^ — '  burning  sky,  without  shade,  amidst  a  storm  of  shot 

june '  and  shells,  continued  their  labor  all  the  morning,  and 

^-     were  now  preparing  for  a  desperate  encounter  with  a 

vastly  superior  force  ;  yet  no  refreshments  were  sent 

them,  and  during  the  whole  day  they  received  not 

even  a  cup  of  cold  water,  nor  so  much  as  a  single 

gill  of  powder.     The  agony  of  suspense  was  now  the 

greater,  because  no  more  work  could  be  done  in  the 

trenches ;  the  tools  were  piled  up  in  the  rear,  and 

the  men  were  waiting,  unemployed,  till  the  fighting 

should  begin. 

The  second  messenger  from  Prescott,  on  his  way  to 
the  head-quarters  at  Cambridge,  was  met  by  Putnam, 
who  was  hastening  to  Charlestown.  The  brigadier 
seems  to  have  been  justly  impressed  with  the  conviction, 
that  the  successful  defence  of  the  peninsula  not  only  re- 
quired reinforcements,  but  that  intrench  nients  should 
be  thrown  up  on  the  summit  of  Bunker  Hill.  He, 
therefore,  rode  up  to  the  redoubt  on  Breed's  Hill, 
where  he  did  not  appear  again  during  the  whole  day, 
and  asked  of  Prescott,  "that  the  intrenching  tools 
might  be  sent  off."  It  was  done,  but  of  the  large 
party  who  took  them  away,  few  returned ;  and  the 
want  of  a  sufficient  force,  and  the  rapid  succession  of 
events,  left  Putnam  no  leisure  to  fortify  the  crown  of 
the  higher  hill. 

Far  different  was  the  scene  in  Boston.  To  finish- 
ed and  abundant  equipments  of  every  kind,  the  Brit- 
ish troops,  though  in  number  hardly  more  than  five 
thousand  effective  men,  added  experience  and  exact 
discipline.  Taking  advantage  of  high  water,  the 
Glasgow  sloop  of  war  and  two  floating  batteries  had 


PRESCOTT    OCCUPIES    BREED'S    HILL.  413 


been  moored,  where  their  2ims  raked  the  isthmus  of  CHAP. 

O  XXXVIII. 

Charlestown.  Between  the  hours  of  twelve  and  one,  ~~- — 
by  order  of  General  Gage,  boats  and  barges,  manned  june ' 
by  oars,  all  plainly  visible  to  Prescott  and  his  men,  17- 
bore  over  the  unruffled  sheet  of  water  from  Long 
Wharf  to  Moulton's  Point  in  Charlestown,  the  fifth, 
the  thirty-eighth,  the  forty-third,  and  the  fifty-second 
regiments  of  infantry,  with  ten  companies  of  grena- 
diers, ten  of  light  infantry,  and  a  proportion  of  field 
artillery,  in  all  about  two  thousand  men.  They  were 
commanded  by  Major  General  Howe,  who  was  assist- 
ed by  Brigadier  General  Pigot.  It  was  noticed  that 
Percy,  pleading  illness,  let  his  regiment  go  without 
him.  The  British  landed  under  cover  of  the  ship- 
ping, on  the  outward  side  of  the  peninsula,  near  the 
Mystic,  with  a  view  to  outflank  the  American  party, 
surround  them,  and  make  prisoners  of  the  whole  de- 
tachment. 

The  way  along  the  banks  of  the  river  to  Prescott's 
rear  lay  open  ;  he  had  remaining  with  him  but  about 
seven  or  eight  hundred  men,  worn  with  toil  and 
watching  and  hunger ;  he  knew  not  how  many  were 
coming  against  him ;  his  flank  was  unprotected ;  he 
saw  no  signs  of  reinforcements ;  the  enemy  had  the 
opportunity  to  surround  and  crush  his  little  band. 
"Never  were  men  placed  in  a  more  dangerous  po- 
sition." But  Howe,  who  was  of  a  sluggish  tempera- 
ment, halted  on  the  first  rising  ground,  and  sent  back 
for  more  troops.  The  delay  cost  him  dear. 

When  Prescott  perceived  the  British  begin  to 
land  on  the  point  east  by  north  from  the  fort,  he 
made  the  best  disposition  of  his  scanty  force,  ordering 
the  train  of  artillery  with  two  field  pieces,  and  the 

VOL.  vii.  35* 


414  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 


Connecticut  forces  under  Knowlton,  "  to  go  and  op- 
—  •  —  pose  them." 

1  V  7  ^ 

June  At  about  two  hundred  yards  in  the  rear  of  the 
17-  still  unfinished  breastwork,  a  fence  of  posts  with  two 
rails,  set  in  a  low  stone  wall,  extended  for  about  three 
hundred  yards  or  more  towards  the  Mystic.  The 
mowers  had  but  the  day  before  passed  over  the 
meadows,  and  the  grass  lay  on  the  ground  in  cocks 
and  windrows.  There  the  men  of  Connecticut,  in 
pursuance  of  Prescott's  order,  took  their  station.  Na- 
ture had  provided  "  something  of  a  breastwork,"  or 
a  ditch  had  been  dug  many  years  before.  They 
grounded  arms  and  made  a  slight  fortification  against 
musket  balls  by  interweaving  the  newly  mown  grass 
between  the  rails,  and  by  carrying  forward  a  post  and 
rail  fence  alongside  of  the  first,  and  piling  the  fresh 
hay  between  the  two.  But  the  line  of  defence  was 
still  very  far  from  complete.  Nearer  the  water  the 
bank  was  smooth  and  without  obstruction,  declining 
gently  for  sixty  or  eighty  yards,  where  it  fell  off 
abruptly.  Between  the  rail  fence  and  the  unfinished 
breastwork,  the  space  was  open  and  remained  so  ;  the 
slough  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  guarded  a  part  of  the 
distance;  nearly  a  hundred  yards  were  left  almost 
wholly  unprotected. 

Brooks,  afterwards  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
one  of  Prescott's  messengers,  had  no  mode  of  reach- 
ing head-quarters  but  on  foot.  Having  performed 
the  long  walk,  he  found  the  general  anxious  and  per- 
plexed. Ward  saw  very  clearly  the  imprudence  of 
risking  a  battle  for  which  the  army  was  totally  un- 
prepared. To  the  committee  of  safety  which  was  in 
session,  the  committee  of  supplies  expressed  its  con- 


PRESCOTT    OCCUPIES    BREED'S    HILL.  415 


cern  at  the  "expenditure  of  powder;"  "any  great  CHAP. 
consumption  by  cannon  might  be  ruinous ;  "  and  it  is  — « — ' 
a  fact  that  the  Americans — with  companies  incoin-   june* 
plete  in  number,  enlisted  chiefly  within   six  weeks,     17' 
commanded,  many  of  them,  by  officers  unfit,  ignorant, 
and  untried,  gathered  from  four  separate  colonies,  with 
no  reciprocal  subordination  but  from  courtesy  and 
opinion — after   coHecting   all  the    ammunition   that 
could  be  obtained  north  of  the  Delaware,  had  in  the 
magazine  for  an  army,  engaged  in  a  siege  and  pre- 
paring for  a  fight,  no  more  than  twenty-seven  half 
barrels  of  powder,  with  a  gift  from  Connecticut  of 
thirty-six  half  barrels  more. 


CHAPTEE    XXXIX. 

BUNKER  HILL  BATTLE. 

JUNE  17,  1775. 

xxxix  WABD  determined,  if  possible,  to  avoid  a  general 

^ —  action.     Apprehending  that,  if  reinforcements  should 

June    leave  his  camp,  the  main  attack  of  the  British  would 

17-     be  made  upon  Cambridge,  he  refused  to  impair  his 

strength  at  head-quarters  ;  but  he  ordered  the  New 

Hampshire  regiments  of  Stark,  stationed  at  Medford, 

and  of  Reed,  near  Charlestown  neck,  to   march  to 

Prescott's  support. 

When  word  was  brought  that  the  British  were 
actually  landing  in  Charlestown,  the  general  regarded 
it  as  a  feint,  and  still  refused  to  change  his  plan.  But 
here  the  character  of  New  England  shone  out  in  its 
brightest  lustre.  The  welcome  intelligence  that  the 
British  had  actually  sallied  out  of  Boston,  thrilled 
through  men,  who  were  "waiting  impatiently  to 
avenge  the  blood  of  their  murdered  countrymen." 
Owing  to  the  want  of  activity  in  Ward,  who  did  not 
leave  his  house  during  the  whole  day,  all  was  confu- 
sion ;  but  while  the  bells  were  ringing  and  the  drums 


BUNKER    HILL    BATTLE.  417 

beating  to  arms,  officers  who  had  longed  for  the  op-  CHAP. 
portunity  of  meeting  the  British  in  battle,  soldiers  — , — 
who  clung  to  the  officers  of  their  choice  with  con- 
stancy,  set  off  for  the  scene  of  battle,  hardly  knowing 
themselves  whether  they  were  countenanced  by  the 
general,  or  the  committee  of  safety,  or  the  council  of 
war;  or  moved  by  the  same  impetuous  enthusiasm 
which  had  brought  them  forth  on  the  nineteenth  of 
April,  and  which  held  "  an  honorable  death  in  the 
field  for  the  liberties  of  all  America  preferable  to  an 
ignominious  slavery." 

The  veteran,  Seth  Pomeroy  of  Northampton,  an 
old  man  of  seventy,  once  second  in  rank  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts army,  but  now  postponed  to  younger  men, 
heedless  of  the  slight,  was  roused  by  the  continuance 
of  the  cannonade,  and  rode  to  Charlestown  neck;  there, 
thoughtful  for  his  horse,  which  was  a  borrowed  one, 
he  shouldered  his  fowling-piece,  marched  over  on 
foot,  and  amidst  loud  cheers  of  welcome,  took  a  place 
at  the  rail  fence. 

Joseph  Warren  also,  after  discharging  his  duty 
in  the  committee  of  safety,  resolved  to  take  part  in 
the  battle.  He  was  entreated  by  Elbridge  Gerry  not 
thus  to  expose  his  life.  "It  is  pleasant  and  becoming 
to  die  for  one's  country,"  was  his  answer.  Three 
days  before,  he  had  been  elected  a  provincial  major- 
general.  He  knew  perfectly  well  the  defects  of  the 
American  camp,  the  danger  of  the  intrenched  party, 
and  how  the  character  of  his  countrymen  and  the 
interests  of  mankind  hung  in  suspense  on  the  conduct 
of  that  day.  About  two  o'clock  he  crossed  Bunker 
Hill,  unattended,  and  with  a  musket  in  his  hand. 
He  stood  for  a  short  time  near  a  cannon  at  the  rail 


418  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  fence  in  conversation  with  Putnam,  who  declared  a 

— , —  readiness  to  receive  his  orders ;  but  Warren  declined 

l/une    to  assume  authority,  and  passed  on  to  the  redoubt, 

17.     which  was  expected  to  be  the  chief  point  of  attack. 

As  soon  as  he  arrived  there   Prescott  proposed  that 

he  should  take  the  command ;  but  he  answered  as  he 

had  done  to  Putnam :   "  I  come   as  a  volunteer,  to 

learn  from  a  soldier  of  experience;"  and  in  choosing 

his  station  he  looked  only  for  the  place  of  greatest 

danger  and  importance. 

Of  the  men  of  Essex  who  formed  Little's  regiment, 
full  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  hastened  to  the  aid  of 
Prescott ;  Worcester  and  Middlesex  furnished  more 
than  seventy  from  Brewer's  regiment,  and  with  them 
the  prudent  and  fearless  William  Buckminster,  of 
Barre,  their  lieutenant  colonel.  From  the  same  coun- 
ties came  above  fifty  more,  led  by  John  Nixon,  of 
Sudbury.  Willard  Moore,  of  Paxton,  a  man  of  su- 
perior endowments,  brought  on  about  forty  of  Wor- 
cester county;  from  the  regiment  of  Whitcomb,  of 
Lancaster,  there  appeared  at  least  fifty  privates, 
but  with  no  higher  officers  than  captains.  Not 
more  than  six  light  field  pieces  were  brought  upon 
the  ground ;  but  from  defective  conduct  and  want  of 
ammunition,  even  these  were  scarcely  used.  A  few 
shot  were  thrown  from  two  or  three  of  them  ;  as  if  to 
mark  the  contrast  with  the  heavy  and  incesssant  can- 
nonade of  the  British. 

At  the  rail  fence  there  were,  as  yet,  but  the  Con- 
necticut men,  whom  Prescott  had  detached.  The  two 
field  pieces  had  been  deserted  by  the  artillerymen. 
After  the  British  had  landed,  and  just  before  they  ad- 
vanced, a  party  of  New  Hampshire  levies  arrived, 


BUNKER   HILL    BATTLE.  419 

led  on  by  Colonel  John  Stark,  who,  next  to  Prescott,  CHAP. 

XXXIX 

brought  the  largest  number  of  men  into  the  field.  — *~ 
When  they  came  to  the  isthmus,  which  was  raked  by 
cannon,  Dearborn,  one  of  his  captains  who  walked  by 
his  side,  advised  a  quick  step.  "  Dearborn,"  replied 
Stark,  "  one  fresh  man  in  action  is  worth  ten  fatigued 
ones  ; "  and  he  marched  leisurely  across  Charlestown 
neck,  through  the  galling  fire  of  cannon  shot,  which 
buzzed  about  them  like  hail.  Of  quickest  perception, 
resolute  in  decision,  the  rugged  trapper  was  as  calm  as 
though  he  had  been  hunting  in  his  native  woods.  At 
a  glance  upon  the  beach  along  Mystic  river,  "I  saw 
there,"  he  related,  "the  way  so  plain,  that  the 
enemy  could  not  miss  it."  While  some  of  his  men 
continued  the  line  of  defence  by  still  weaving  grass 
between  the  rails,  others,  at  his  bidding,  leaped  down 
the  bank,  and  with  stones  from  adjacent  walls,  on  the 
instant  threw  up  a  breastwork  to  the  water's  edge. 
Behind  this,  in  the  most  exposed  station  that  could 
have  been  selected,  where  a  covered  boat,  musket 
proof,  carrying  a  heavy  piece  of  cannon,  if  it  had  been 
towed  up  the  channel,  could  have  taken  them  on  the 
side  and  instantly  dislodged  them,  he  posted  triple 
ranks  of  his  men  ;  the  rest  knelt  or  lay  down.  The 
time  allowed  him  no  opportunity  of  consulting  with 
Prescott ;  they  fought  independently ;  Prescott  to 
defend  the  redoubt,  Knowlton  and  Stark,  with  Reed's 
regiment,  to  protect  its  flank.  These  are  all  who 
arrived  before  the  beginning  of  the  attack ;  and  not 
more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  others  of  various  regi- 
ments, led  by  different  officers  or  driven  by  their  own 
zeal,  reached  the  battle  ground  before  the  retreat. 
From  first  to  last,  Putnam  took  an  active  interest  in 


420  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the  expedition,  and  the  appointment  of  Prescott  to 
^-r— '  its  command,  was  made  with  his  concurrence.  With- 
Vune  ou^  *n  ^e  leagt  interfering  with  that  command,  he 
17.  was  now  planning  additional  works  on  Bunker  Hill, 
now  mingling  with  the  Connecticut  troops  at  the  rail 
fence,  now  threatening  officers  or  men  who  seemed  to 
him  dilatory  or  timid,  now  at  Cambridge  in  person  or 
by  message,  earnestly  demanding  reinforcements,  ever 
busily  engaged  in  aiding  and  encouraging,  here  and 
there,  as  the  case  required.  After  the  first  landing  of 
the  British,  he  sent  orders  by  his  son  to  the  Connec- 
ticut forces  at  Cambridge,  "  that  they  must  all  meet 
and  march  immediately  to  Bunker  Hill  to  oppose  the 
enemy."  Chester  and  his  company  ran  for  their  arms 
and  ammunition,  and  marched  with  such  alacrity  that 
they  arrived  at  the  battle  ground  before  the  day  was 
decided. 

While  the  camp  at  Cambridge  was  the  scene  of 
so  much  confusion,  Howe  caused  refreshments  to  be 
distributed  abundantly  among  his  troops.  The  re- 
enforcements  which  he  had  demanded,  arrived,  con- 
sisting of  several  more  companies  of  light  infantry 
and  grenadiers,  the  forty -seventh  regiment,  and  a  bat- 
talion of  marines.  u  The  whole,"  wrote  Gage,  u  made  a 
.body  of  something  above  two  thousand  men ;"  "  about 
two  thousand  men  and  two  battalions  to  reenforce 
him,"  wrote  Burgoyne ;  "  near  upon  three  thousand," 
thought  very  accurate  observers,  and  a  corps  of  five 
regiments,  one  battalion,  and  twenty  flank  companies, 
more  than  seventy  companies  must,  after  all  allow- 
ances, be  reckoned  at  two  thousand  five  hundred 
men,  or  more.  It  comprised  the  chief  strength  of 
the  army. 


BUNKER    HILL    BATTLE.  421 

Not   till   the   news   reached   Cambridge  of  this  CHAP. 

XXXIX 

second  landing  at  Charlestown,  was  Ward  relieved  ^^ 
from  the  apprehension,  that  the  main  body  of  the 
British  would  interpose  themselves  between  Charles- 
town  and  Cambridge.  Persuaded  of  the  security  of 
the  camp,  and  roused  by  the  earnest  and  eloquent 
entreaties  of  Devens,  of  Charlestown,  himself  a  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  of  safety,  Ward  consented  to 
order  reinforcements ;  among  them  his  own  regiment, 
but  it  was  too  late. 

The  whole  number  of  Americans  on  the  ground 
at  that  time,  including  all  such  as  crossed  the  cause- 
way seasonably  to  take  part  in  the  fight,  according  to 
the  most  solemn  assurances  of  the  officers  who  were 
in  the  action,  to  the  testimony  of  eye  witnesses,  to 
contemporary  inquirers,  and  to  the  carefully  consid- 
ered judgment  of  Washington,  did  not  exceed  one 
thousand  five  hundred  men. 

Nor  should  history  forget  to  record  that,  as  in  the 
army  at  Cambridge,  so  also  in  this  gallant  band,  the 
free  negroes  of  the  colony  had  their  representatives. 
For  the  right  of  free  negroes  to  bear  arms  in  the 
public  defence  was,  at  that  day,  as  little  disputed  in 
New  England  as  their  other  rights.  They  took  their 
place  not  in  a  separate  corps,  but  in  the  ranks  with 
the  white  man,  and  their  names  may  be  read  on  the 
pension  rolls  of  the  country,  side  by  side  with  those 
of  other  soldiers  of  the  revolution. 

Two  days  after  the  massacre  at  Lexington,  Gage 
bad  threatened,  that  if  the  Americans  should  occupy 
Charlestown  heights,  the  town  should  be  burned. 
Its  inhabitants,  however,  had  always  been  willing  that 
the  threat  should  be  disregarded.  The  time  for  the 

VOL  vii.       36 


422  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  holocaust  was  now  come.     Pretending  that  his  flank- 
•  —  r—  '  ing  parties  were  annoyed  from  houses  in  the  village, 


Howe  sent  a  boat  over  with  a  request  to  Clinton  and 
17.  Burgoyne  to  burn  it.  The  order  was  immediately 
obeyed  by  a  discharge  of  shells  from  Copp's  Hill. 
The  inflammable  buildings  caught  in  an  instant,  and 
a  party  of  men  landed  and  spread  the  fire  ;  but  from 
the  sudden  shifting  of  the  wind,  the  movements  of 
the  assailants  were  not  covered  by  the  smoke  of  the 
conflagration. 

At  half  past  two  o'clock,  or  a  very  little  later, 
General  Howe  not  confining  his  attack  to  the  left 
wing  alone,  advanced  to  a  simultaneous  assault  on 
the  whole  front  from  the  redoubt  to  Mystic  river. 
In  Burgoyne's  opinion,  "his  disposition  was  soldier- 
like and  perfect."  Of  the  two  columns  which  were 
put  in  motion,  .the  one  was  led  by  Pigot  against  the 
redoubt;  the  other  by  Howe  himself  against  the 
flank,  which  seemed  protected  by  nothing  but  a  fence 
of  rails  and  hay  easy  to  be  scrambled  over,  when  the 
left  of  Prescott  would  be  turned,  and  he  would  be 
forced  to  surrender  on  finding  the  enemy  in  his 
rear. 

As  they  began  to  march,  the  dazzling  lustre  of  a 
summer's  sun  was  reflected  from  their  burnished  ar- 
mor ;  the  battery  on  Copp's  Hill,  from  which  Clinton 
and  Burgoyne  were  watching  every  movement,  kept 
up  an  incessant  fire,  which  was  seconded  by  the  Fal- 
con and  the  Lively,  the  Somerset  and  the  two  floating 
batteries  ;  the  town  of  Charlestown,  consisting  of  five 
hundred  edifices  of  wood,  burst  into  a  blaze  ;  the 
steeple  of  its  only  church  became  a  pyramid  of  fire  ; 
and  the  masts  of  the  shipping,  and  the  heights  of  the 


BUNKER    HILL    BATTLE.  423 

British  camp,  the  church  towers,  the  housetops  of  a  CHAP. 
populous  town,  and  the  acclivities  of  the  surrounding  — r~ 
country  were  crowded  with  spectators,  to  watch  the  YJ^' 
battle  which  was  to  take  place,  in  full  sight  on  a  con-     IT. 
spicuous  eminence,  and  which,  as  the  English  thought, 
was  to  assure  the  integrity  of  the  British  empire,  as 
the  Americans  believed,  was  to  influence  the  freedom 
and  happiness  of  mankind. 

As  soon  as  Prescott  perceived  that  the  enemy 
were  in  motion,  he  commanded  Robinson,  his  lieuten- 
ant colonel,  the  same  who  conducted  himself  so 
bravely  in  the  fight  at  Concord,  and  Henry  Woods, 
his  major,  famed  in  the  villages  of  Middlesex  for  abil- 
ity and  patriotism,  with  separate  detachments  to  flank 
the  enemy ;  and  they  executed  his  orders  with  pru- 
dence and  daring.  He  then  went  through  the  works 
to  encourage  and  animate  his  inexperienced  soldiers. 
"The  redcoats  will  never  reach  the  redoubt,"  such 
were  his  words,  as  he  himself  used  to  narrate  them, 
"  if  you  will  but  withhold  your  fire  till  I  give  the  or- 
der, and  be  careful  not  to  shoot  over  their  heads." 
After  this  round,  he  took  his  post  in  the  redoubt,  well 
satisfied  that  the  men  would  do  their  duty. 

The  British  advanced  in  line  in  good  order,  stead- 
ily and  slowly,  and  with  a  confident  imposing  air, 
pausing  on  the  march  to  let  their  artillery  prepare 
the  way,  and  firing  with  muskets  as  they  advanced. 
But  they  fired  too  soon,  and  too  high,  doing  but  little 
injury. 

Incumbered  with  their  knapsacks,  they  ascended 
the  steep  hill  with  difficulty,  covered  as  it  was  with 
grass  reaching  to  their  knees,  and  intersected  with 
walls  and  fences.  Prescott  waited  till  the  enemy 


424  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  had  approached  within  eight  rods  as  he  afterwards 

XXXIX 

•  —  »  —  -  thought,  within  ten  or  twelve  rods  as  the  committee 


f  Massachusetts  wrote,  when  he  gave  the 
17.  word  :  "  Fire."  At  once  from  the  redoubt,  and  breast- 
work, every  gun  was  discharged.  Nearly  the  whole 
front  rank  of  the  enemy  fell,  and  the  rest  to  whom 
this  determined  resistance  was  unexpected,  were 
brought  to  a  stand.  For  a  few  minutes,  fifteen  or 
ten,  who  can  count  such  minutes!  each  one  of  the 
Americans,  completely  covered  while  he  loaded  his 
musket,  exposed  only  while  he  stood  upon  the  wooden 
platform  or  steps  of  earth  in  the  redoubt  to  take  aim, 
fought  according  to  his  own  judgment  and  will  ;  and  a 
close  and  unremitting  fire  was  continued  and  returned, 
till  the  British  staggered,  wavered,  and  then  in  dis- 
ordered masses  retreated  precipitately  to  the  foot  of 
the  hill,  and  some  even  to  their  boats. 

The  column  of  the  enemy  which  advanced  near 
the  Mystic  under  the  lead  of  Howe,,  moved  gallantly 
forward  against  the  rail-fence,  and  when  within  eighty 
or  one  hundred  yards,  displayed  into  line,  with  the 
precision  of  troops  on  parade.  Here,  too,  the  Amer- 
icans, commanded  by  Stark  and  Knowlton,  cheered 
on  by  Putnam,  who  like  Prescott  bade  them  reserve 
their  fire,  restrained  themselves  as  if  by  universal  con- 
sent, till  at  the  proper  moment,  resting  their  guns  on 
the  rails  of  the  fence,  they  poured  forth  a  deliberate, 
well  directed,  fatal  discharge.  Here,  too,  the  British 
recoiled  from  the  volley,  and  after  a  short  contest, 
were  thrown  into  confusion,  and  fell  back  till  they 
were  covered  by  the  ground. 

Then  followed  moments  of  joy  in  that  unfinished 
redoubt,  and  behind  the  grassy  rampart,  where  New 


BUNKER   HILL    BATTLE.  425 

England  husbandmen,  so  often  taunted  with  cowardice,  CHAP. 

XXXIX 

beheld  veteran  battalions  shrink  before  their  arms.  — ^- 
Their  hearts  bounded   as   they   congratulated  each 
other.      The  night  watches,  thirst,  hunger,  danger, 
whether  of  captivity  or  death,  were  forgotten.     They 
promised  themselves  victory. 

As  the  British  soldiers  retreated,  the  officers  were 
seen  by  the  spectators  on  the  opposite  shore,  running 
down  to  them,  using  passionate  gestures,  and  pushing 
them  forward  with  their  swords.  After  an  interval 
of  about  fifteen  minutes,  during  which  Prescott  moved 
round  among  his  men,  encouraging  them  and  cheer- 
ing them  with  praise,  the  British  column  under  Pigot 
rallied  and  advanced,  though  with  apparent  reluctance, 
in  the  same  order  as  before,  firing  as  they  approached 
within  musket  shot.  This  time  the  Americans  with- 
held their  fire  till  the  enemy  were  within  six  or  five 
rods  of  the  redoubt,  when,  as  the  order  was  given, 
it  seemed  more  fatal  than  before.  The  enemy  con- 
tinued to  discharge  their  guns,  and  pressed  forward 
with  spirit.  "  But  from  the  whole  American  line, 
there  was,"  said  Prescott,  "  a  continuous  stream  of  fire," 
and  though  the  British  officers  were  seen  exposing 
themselves  fearlessly,  remonstrating,  threatening,  and 
even 'striking  the  soldiers  to  urge  them  on,  they  could 
not  reach  the  redoubt,  but  in  a  few  moments  gave 
way  in  greater  disorder  than  before.  The  wounded 
and  the  dead  covered  the  ground  in  front  of  the 
works,  some  lying  within  a  few  yards  of  them. 

On  the  flank  also,  the  British  light  infantry  again 
marched  up  its  companies  against  the  grass  fence,  but 
could  not  penetrate  it.  "  Indeed,"  wrote  some  of  the 
survivors,  "  how  could  we  penetrate  it  ?  Most  of 

VOL.  vn.  36* 


426  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  our  grenadiers  and  light  infantry,  the  moment  of  pre- 
—>  —  senting  themselves,  lost  three-fourths,  and  many,  nine 


f  their  men.  Some  had  only  eight  or  nine 
17.  men  in  a  company  left,  some  only  three,  four,  or  five." 
On  the  ground  where  but  the  day  before  the  mowers 
had  swung  the  scythe  in  peace,  "  the  dead,"  relates 
Stark,  "lay  as  thick  as  sheep  in  a  fold."  Howe 
for  a  few  seconds  was  left  nearly  alone,  so  many  of 
the  officers  about  him  having  been  killed  or  wound- 
ed ;  and  it  required  the  utmost  exertion  of  all,  from 
the  generals  down  to  the  subalterns,  to  repair  the  rout. 

At  intervals  the  artillery  from  the  ships  and  bat- 
teries  was  playing,  while  the  flames  were  rising  over 
the  town  of  Charlestown,  and  laying  waste  the  places 
of  the  sepulchres  of  its  fathers,  and  streets  were  fall- 
ing together,  and  ships  at  the  yards  were  crashing 
on  the  stocks,  and  the  kindred  of  the  Americans,  from 
the  fields  and  hills  around,  watched  every  gallant  act 
of  their  defenders.  "  The  whole,"  wrote  Burgoyne, 
"was  a  complication  of  horror  and  importance  beyond 
any  thing  it  ever  came  to  my  lot  to  be  witness  to.  It 
was  a  sight  for  a  young  soldier,  that  the  longest  ser- 
vice may  not  furnish  again." 

"  If  we  drive  them  back  once  more,"  cried  Pres- 
cott,  "they  cannot  rally  again."  To  the  enduring 
husbandmen  about  him,  the  terrible  and  appalling 
scene  was  altogether  new.  u  We  are  ready  for  the 
red-coats  again,"  they  shouted,  cheering  their  com- 
mander, and  not  one  of  them  shrunk  from  duty. 

In  the  longer  interval  that  preceded  the  third 
attack,  a  council  of  officers  disclosed  the  fact,  that 
the  ammunition  was  almost  exhausted.  Though 


BUNKER    HILL    BATTLE.  427 

Prescott  had  sent  in  the  morning  for  a  supply,  he  CHAP. 

had  received  none,  and  there  were  not  fifty  bayonets  — , — ' 
in  his  party.     A  few  artillery  cartridges  were  disco v- 
ered,  and  as  the  last  resource  the  powder  in  them 
was  distributed,  with  the  direction,  that  not  a  kernel 
of  it  should  be  wasted. 


CHAPTEK    XL. 

THE  RESULT  OF  BUNKER  HILL  BATTLE. 
JUNE  17,  1775. 

CHAP.  THE  royal  army,  exasperated  at  retreating  before  an 
^^^  enemy  whom  they  had  professed  to  despise,  and  by 

^une*  ^e  s^*  °^  many  hundreds  of  their  men  who  lay 
17.  dead  or  bleeding  on  the  ground,  prepared  to  renew 
the  engagement.  While  the  light  infantry  and  a 
part  of  the  grenadiers  were  left  to  continue  the  at- 
tack at  the  rail-fence,  Howe  concentrated  the  rest  of 
his  forces  upon  the  redoubt.  Cannon  were  brought 
to  bear  in  such  a  manner  as  to  rake  the  iuside  of  the 
breastwork,  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other,  so  that 
the  Americans  were  obliged  to  crowd  within  their 
fort.  Then  the  British  troops,  having  disencumbered 
themselves  of  their  knapsacks,  advanced  in  column 
with  fixed  bayonets.  Clinton,  who  from  Copp's  Hill 
had  watched  the  battle,  at  this  critical  moment,  and 
without  orders,  pushed  off  in  a  boat,  and  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  two  battalions,  the  marines  and  the 
forty-seventh,  which  seemed  to  hesitate  on  the  beach 
as  if  uncertain  what  to  do.  These  formed  the  extreme 


THE  RESULT  OF  BUNKER  HILL  BATTLE.  429 

left  of  the  British,  and  advanced  from  the  south ;  the  CHAP. 

YT 

fifth,    the    thirty-eighth,    and   forty-third    battalions  ^-^ 
formed  the  centre,  and  attacked  from  the  east ;  on  l J  ™  • 
their  right  was  the  fifty -second  with  grenadiers,  who     17. 
forced  the  now  deserted  intrenchments. 

The  Americans  within  the  redoubt,  attacked  at 
once  on  three  sides  by  six  battalions,  at  that  time 
numbered  less  than  seven  hundred  men.  Of  these 
some  had  no  more  than  one,  none  more  than  three 
or  four  rounds  of  ammunition  left.  But  Prescott's 
self-possession  increased  with  danger.  He  directed 
his  men  to  wait  till  the  enemy  were  within  twenty 
yards,  when  they  poured  upon  them  a  deadly  volley. 
The  British  wavered  for  an  instant,  and  then  sprang 
forward  without  returning  the  fire.  The  American 
fire  slackened,  and  began  to  die  away.  The  British 
reached  the  rampart  on  the  southern  side.  Those 
who  first  scaled  the  parapet  were  shot  down  as  they 
mounted.  Major  Pitcairn  fell  mortally  wounded,  just 
as  he  was  entering  the  redoubt.  A  single  artillery 
cartridge  furnished  powder  for  the  last  muskets  which 
the  Americans  fired.  For  some  time  longer  they  kept 
the  enemy  at  bay,  confronting  them  with  the  butt 
end  of  their  guns,  and  striking  them  with  the  bar- 
rels after  the  stocks  were  broken.  The  breastwork 
being  abandoned,  the  ammunition  all  expended,  the 
redoubt  half  filled  with  regulars  and  on  the  point 
of  being  surrounded,  and  no  other  reinforcements 
having  arrived,  at  a  little  before  four,  Prescott  gave 
the  word  to  retreat.  He  himself  was  among  the  last 
to  leave  the  fort ;  escaping  unhurt,  though  with  coat 
and  waistcoat  rent  and  pierced  by  bayonets,  which 
he  parried  with  his  sword.  The  men,  retiring  through 


430  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  the  sallyport  or  leaping  over  the  walls,  made  their 
way  through  their  enemies,  each  for  himself,  without 
mucn  order,  and  the  dust  which  rose  from  the  dry 
earth  now  powdered  in  the  sun,  and  the  smoke  of  the 
engagement,  gave  them  some  covering.  The  British, 
who  had  turned  the  north-eastern  end  of  the  breast- 
work, and  had  likewise  come  round  the  angle  of  the 
redoubt,  were  too  much  exhausted  to  use  the  bayonet 
against  them  with  vigor,  and  at  first  the  parties  were 
so  closely  intermingled  as  to  interrupt  the  firing; 
it  also  appeared  that  a  supply  of  ball  for  the  ar- 
tillery, sent  from  Boston  during  the  battle,  was  too 
large  for  the  field-pieces  which  accompanied  the  de- 
tachment. 

The  little  handful  of  brave  men  would  have  been 
effectually  cut  off,  but  for  the  unfailing  courage  of  the 
provincials  at  the  rail  fence  and  the  bank  of  the 
Mystic.  They  had  repulsed  the  enemy  twice ;  they 
now  held  them  in  check,  till  the  main  body  had  left 
the  hill.  Not  till  then  did  the  Connecticut  compa- 
nies under  Knowlton,  and  the  New  Hampshire  soldiers 
under  Stark  quit  the  station,  which  they  had  "  nobly 
defended."  The  retreat  was  made  with  more  regular- 
ity than  could  have  been  expected  of  troops,  who  had 
been  for  so  short  a  time  under  discipline,  and  many  of 
whom  had  never  before  seen  an  engagement.  Trevett 
and  his  men  drew  off  the  only  field-piece  that  was 
saved.  Pomeroy  walked  backwards,  facing  the  enemy 
and  brandishing  his  musket  till  it  was  struck  and 
marked  by  a  ball.  The  redoubt,  the  brow  of  Bunker 
Hill,  and  the  passage  across  the  Charlestown  cause- 
way, were  the  principal  places  of  slaughter. 

Putnam,  at  the  third  onset,  was  absent,  "  employed 


THE  RESULT  OF  BUNKER  HILL  BATTLE.          431 

in  collecting  men"  for  a  reinforcement,  and  was  encoun-  CHAP. 
tered  by  the  retreating  party  on  the  northern  decliv-  ^~ -. — 
ity  of  Bunker  Hill.    Acting  on  his  own  responsibility,  1j™Q' 
he  now  for  the  first  time  during  the  day  assumed  the     if. 
supreme  direction.     Without  orders  from  any  person, 
he  rallied  such  of  the  fugitives  as  would  obey  him, 
joined  them  to  a  detachment  which  had  not  arrived 
in  season  to  share  in  the  combat,  and  took  possession 
of  Prospect  Hill,  where  he  encamped  that  very  night. 

Repairing  to  head-quarters,  Prescott  offered  with 
three  fresh  regiments  to  recover  his  post.  But  for 
himself  he  sought  neither  advancement,  nor  reward, 
nor  praise,  and  having  performed  the  best  service, 
never  thought  that  he  had  done  more  than  his  duty. 
It  is  the  contemporary  record,  that  during  the  battle 
u  no  one  appeared  to  have  any  command  but  Colonel 
Prescott,"  and  that "  his  bravery  could  never  be  enough 
acknowledged  and  applauded."  The  camp  long  re- 
peated the  story  of  his  self-collected  valor,  and  a  his- 
torian of  the  war,  who  best  knew  the  judgments  of 
the  army,  has  rightly  awarded  the  "  highest  prize  of 
glory  to  Prescott  and  his  companions." 

The  British  were  unable  to  continue  the  pursuit 
beyond  the  isthmus.  They  had  already  brought  their 
best  forces  into  the  field ;  more  than  a  third  of  those 
engaged  lay  dead  or  bleeding,  and  the  survivors  were 
fatigued,  and  overawed  by  the  courage  of  their  ad- 
versaries. The  battle  put  an  end  to  all  offensive 
operations  on  the  part  of  Gage. 

The  number  of  the  killed  and  wounded  in  his 
army  was,  by  his  own  account,  at  least  one  thousand 
and  fifty-four.  Seventy  commissioned  officers  were 
wounded,  and  thirteen  were  slain.  Of  these,  there 


432  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,   were  one  lieutenant  colonel,  two  majors,  and  seven 
^-v— '  captains.     For  near  half  an  liour  there  had  been  a 
Yurie*  continued  sheet  of  fire  from  the  provincials;  and  the 
W-     action  was  hot  for  double  that  period.     The  oldest 
soldiers  had  never  seen  the  like.     The  battle  of  Que- 
bec, which  won  half  a  continent,  did  not  cost  the  lives 
of  so  many  officers  as  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  which 
gained  nothing  but  a  place  of  encampment. 

Howe,  who  was  thought  to  have  been  wounded, 
was  untouched ;  though  his  white  silk  stockings  were 
stained  from  his  walking  through  the  tall  grass,  red 
with  the  blood  of  his  soldiers.  That  he  did  not  fall 
was  a  marvel.  The  praises  bestowed  on  his  apathetic 
valor,  on  the  gallantry  of  Pigot  and  Kawdon,  on  the 
conduct  of  Clinton,  reflected  honor  on  the  untrained 
farmers,  who,  though  inferior  in  numbers,  had  tasked 
the  most  strenuous  exertions  of  their  assailants,  be- 
fore they  could  be  dislodged  from  the  defences  which 
they  had  had  but  four  hours  to  construct. 

The  whole  loss  of  the  Americans  amounted  to  one 
hundred  and  forty-five  killed  and  missing,  and  three 
hundred  and  four  wounded.  The  brave  Moses  Par- 
ker, of  Chelmsford,  was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner ; 
he  died  in  Boston  jail.  Major  Willard  Moore  received 
one  severe  wound  at  the  second  attack,  and  soon  after 
another,  which  he  felt  to  be  mortal ;  so  bidding 
farewell  to  those  who  would  have  borne  him  off,  he 
insisted  on  their  saving  themselves,  and  remained  to 
die  for  the  good  cause,  which  he  had  served  in  coun- 
cil and  in  arms.  Buckminster  was  dangerously  wound- 
ed, but  recovered.  The  injury  to  Nixon  was  so  great 
that  he  suffered  for  many  months,  and  narrowly  escaped 


THE  RESULT  OF  BUNKER  HILL  BATTLE.  433 

with  his  life.  Thomas  Gardner,  a  member  of  con-  CHAP. 
gress  from  Cambridge,  was  hastening  with  some  part  — r^ 
of  his  regiment  to  the  redoubt,  but  as  he  was  descend- 
ing  Bunker  Hill,  he  was  mortally  wounded  by  a  ran- 
dom  shot.  His  townsmen  mourned  for  the  rural 
statesman,  to  whom  they  had  unanimously  shown 
their  confidence  ;  and  Washington  gave  him  the  fune- 
ral honors  due  to  a  gallant  officer.  Andrew  McClary, 
on  that  day  unsurpassed  in  bravery,  returning  to  re- 
connoitre, perished  by  a  chance  cannon  ball  on  the 
isthmus. 

Just  at  the  moment  of  the  retreat,  fell  Joseph 
Warren,  the  last  in  the  trenches.  In  him  were  com- 
bined celerity,  courage,  endurance,  and  manners  which 
won  universal  love.  He  opposed  the  British  govern- 
ment, not  from  interested  motives,  nor  from  resent- 
ment. A  guileless  and  intrepid  advocate  of  the  rights 
of  mankind,  he  sought  not  to  appear  a  patriot-;  he  was 
one  in  truth.  As  the  moment  for  the  appeal  to  arms 
approached,  he  watched  with  joy  the  revival  of  the 
generous  spirit  of  New  England's  ancestors ;  and  where 
peril  was  greatest,  he  was  present,  animating  not  by 
words  alone,  but  ever  by  his  example.  His  integrity, 
the  soundness  of  his  judgment,  his  ability  to  write 
readily  and  well,  his  fervid  eloquence,  his  exact  ac- 
quaintance with  American  rights  and  the  infringe- 
ments of  them,  gave  authority  to  his  advice  in  pri- 
vate, and  in  the  provincial  congress.  Had  he  lived, 
the  future  seemed  burdened  with  his  honors ;  he 
cheerfully  sacrificed  all  for  his  country,  and  for  free- 
dom. Sorrow  could  now  no  more  come  nigh  him,  and 
he  went  to  dwell  in  men's  memories  with  Hampden. 

His  enemies  recognised    his  worth  by  their  ex- 
VOL.  vii.  37 


434  AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

CHAP,  ultation   at    his   fall.      By  his   countrymen,  he  was 
— r— '  "  most   sincerely    and    universally    lamented  ; "    his 
Yune*  motner  would  not  be  consoled.     His  death,  preceded 
IT-     by  that  of  his  wife,  left  his  children  altogether  or- 
phans, till  the  continent,  at  the  motion  of  Samuel 
Adams,  adopted  them  in  part  at*  least  as  its   own. 
The  congress  of  his  native  state,  that  knew  him  well, 
and  had  chosen  him  to  guide  their  debates,  and  re- 
cently to  high  command  in  their  army,  proclaimed  to 
the  world  their  "veneration  for  Joseph  Warren,  whose 
memory  is  endeared  to  his  countrymen,  and  to  the 
worthy  in  every  part  and  age  of  the  world,  so  long 
as  virtue  and  valor  shall  be  esteemed  among  men." 

The  reports  of  the  generals  show  the  opinions  in 
the  two  camps  after  the  battle.  "  The  success,"  wrote 
Gage  to  Dartmouth,  "  which  was  very  necessary  in 
our  present  condition,  cost  us  dear.  The  number  of 
killed  and  wounded  is  greater  than  our  forces  can 
afford  to  lose.  We  have  lost  some  extremely  good 
officers.  The  trials  we  have  had,  show  the  rebels 
are  not  the  despicable  rabble  too  many  have  sup- 
posed them  to  be,  and  I  find  it  owing  to  a  military 
spirit  encouraged  among  them  for  a  few  years  past, 
joined  with  uncommon  zeal  and  enthusiasm.  They 
intrench,  and  raise  batteries;  they  have  engineers. 
They  have  fortified  all  the  heights  and  passes  around 
this  town ;  which  it  is  not  impossible  for  them  to 
annoy.  The  conquest  of  this  country  is  not  easy; 
you  have  to  cope  with  vast  numbers.  In  all  their  wars 
against  the  French,  they  never  showed  so  much  con- 
duct, attention,  and  perseverance,  as  they  do  now. 
I  think  it  my  duty  to  let  your  lordship  know  the 
true  situation  of  affairs." 


THE  RESULT  OF  BUNKER  HILL  BATTLE.  435 


On  the  other  hand,  Ward,  in.a  general  order,  ex- 
pressed  thanks  to  "  the  officers  and  soldiers  who  be-  ^  — 
haved  so  gallantly  at  the  late  action  in  Charlestown  ;  "    juile' 
and  in  words  which  expressed  the  conviction  of  the     l>7m 
American  camp,  he  added,  "  we  shall  finally  come  off 
victorious,  and  triumph  over  the  enemies  of  freedom 
and  America."    Washington,  as  he  heard  the  narrative 
of  the  events  of  the  day,  was  confirmed  in  his  habit- 
ual belief  that  the  liberties  of  America  would  be  pre- 
served.    "Americans  will  fight,"  wrote  Franklin  on 
the  occasion,  to  his  English  friends  ;  "  England  has 
lost  her  colonies  for  ever." 


END  OF  VOL.  VH. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  DATE  stamped  below. 


50m-l,'69(J5643s8)2373— 3A.1